CINCINNATI: India’s Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi and compatriot Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi are through to the quarterfinals of the men’s doubles at the Western & Southern tennis championships.
Paes and Bhupathi, seeded third, had an easy 6-4, 6-2 victory over Spanish pair Rafael Nadal and Marc Lopez, while fifth-seeded Bopanna and Quresh were taken to a super tie-breaker by Argentineans Juan Ignacio Chela and Juan Monaco before winning 6-3, 5-7, 10-4, here Thursday.
Paes and Bhupathi will now play Czech Republic pair Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepenek who put out sixth-seeded Robert Linsted of Sweden and Romanian Horia Tecau 6-2, 6-7(3), 10-6. Boppanna and and Qureshi will run into fourth-seeded Michael Llodra of France and his Serbian partner Nenad Zimonozic, who outlasted American Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Rojer of Curaco, a former Netherlands Antilles island, 5-7, 6-4,10-5.
If Bopanna and Qureshi can get past the fourth seeds, they will not encounter any more seeds in their half of the draw as second-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Canadian Daniel Nestor and eighth seeds Jurgen Melzer of Austria and German Phillip Petzschner were knocked out.
Meanwhile, World number two Rafael Nadal scraped into the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Open after beating fellow Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 in a fierce battle on Thursday.
It was a gruelling contest in the heat for the Spanish pair that lasted three hours and 38 minutes and was decided by a mistake-filled third tiebreak.
Nadal, who gave up three match points in the decisive tiebreak, stuck with the task to finish off a determined Verdasco despite never finding his rhythm.
While it was as close as could be, the game lacked the expected quality as Nadal made 41 unforced errors and Verdasco 59 while the world number two managed only 24 winners.
Nadal will face Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals after the American beat France’s Richard Gasquet 7-5, 7-5. Britain’s Andy Murray had an easier route into the last eight with a relatively comfortable 6-2 7-5 win over American qualifier Alex Bogomolov. The win gave Murray revenge for his defeat to the Moscow-born Bogomolov in Miami earlier this year. Czech Tomas Berdych easily dealt with Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 6-2, 6-2 and will face the winner of the match, later on Thursday, between world number three Federer and American James Blake. (Agencies)