India’s Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna entered the French Open men’s doubles quarterfinals along with their respective partners after posting contrasting victories here today.
The sixth seeded Indo-Romanian pair of Bopanna and Florin Mergea defeated Marcus Daniell and Brian Baker 6-2, 6-7 (4) 6-1, while 16th seeds Paes and Marcin Matkowski stunned fourth seeded combination of Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
Bopanna and Mergea did not lose serve even once as they won against the unseeded New Zealand-American duo. The opening set was a stroll for the sixth seeds, who broke their rivals twice and held serve effortlessly to grab the initial edge.
However, Daniell and Baker clawed back in the second set by saving three break points and drastically improving their first serve. The set finally moved into a tie-break, which Daniell and Baker won to draw level in the match.
But the fightback did not last in the third set as Bopanna and Mergea broke them twice and returned rather well to emerge triumphant.
Bopanna and Mergea will next face the winners of the match between third seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo and Chris Guccione and Andre Sa.
In another match, Paes and his Polish partner converted one break chance that they got in the opening set, while Soares and Murray could make use of just one of the five breakpoints that they got. The set eventually went into a tie-break, which the Indo-Polish pair clinched to take an upper hand.
The second set also went into the tie-break, where Paes and Matkowski managed to hold on to their nerves to wrap up the match in style.
The Indo-Polish combo will next take on the formidable Bryan Brothers — Bob and Mike.
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