French Open: Paes, Bopanna enter men's doubles quarters, Sania-Martina ousted (Roundup)

Paris, May 29 (IANS) India's tennis stars Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna stormed into the quarter-finals of their respective men's doubles events while Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis were knocked out of the women's doubles in the French Open here on Sunday.

The 16th-seeded Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski stunned fourth seeds England's Jamie Murray and Brazil's Bruno Soares 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) in one hour and 43 minutes in the third round to enter the last eight stage.

Bopanna and his men's doubles partner Romanian Florin Mergea outclassed the US' Brian Baker and New Zealand's Marcus Daniell 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in one hour and 48 minutes in the third round to enter the last eight stage.

Saina and her women's doubles partner Martina Hingis were defeated by Czech duo Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova with a 3-6, 2-6 win in one hour and eight minutes in the third round, while Bopanna and his mixed doubles partner Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva were beaten by top seeds England's Jamie Murray and Chinese Taipei's Hao-Ching Chan 6-2, 3-6, 8-10 in 59 minutes in the second round.

In the men's doubles, the sixth-seeded Bopanna and Mergea got their match off to a positive start, taking an important 4-2 lead over their opponent and from there on, the duo broke Baker-Daniell's serve twice to win the first set comfortably by a healthy 6-2 margin.

In the second set, both the sides displayed their best on the court, winning each game to make it 6-6 and take the set to a tie-breaker.

Baker-Daniell were the dominant side in the tie-breaker as the duo played sensibly to edge past Bopanna-Mergea 7-4 to win the second set and level things up 1-1.

In third and final set, the sixth-seeded pair broke their opponents twice to take a handy 5-1 lead and from there on served brilliantly to win the last game and the set 6-1.

On the other hand, the 16th seeded pairing of Paes and Matkowski gave a tough fight to their opponents but Murray-Soares held their nerves to make it 6-6 and forced the set to go into a tie-breaker.

But the first set tie-breaker also saw a close encounter which was eventually won by Paes-Matkowski 7-5 to take a vital 1-0 lead in the tie.

The second set also saw a nail-biting clash between the two sides as both kept winning individual serves to take the set to 6-6 and force yet another tie-breaker.

The Indian and his Polish partner eventually won the tie-breaker 7-4 to storm into the quarter-finals.

Later on, Sania and her partner Martina struggled at the start of their match as Barbora-Katerina broke their opponent twice to take an important 4-1 lead. The Czechs broke the top seeded pair yet again for the third time in the set to comfortably win it 6-3.

In the second set it was just the same story like the first one as Barbora-Katerina broke Sania-Martina twice to be on the lead yet again at 4-0. There was no looking back for the Czech duo as they made it look easy to stun the top seed and win the set 6-2 to grab a place in the quarters.

Bopanna and his mixed doubles partner Kudryavtseva got the match off to a positive start by breaking their opponent twice to take the opening set 6-2 but Murray and Hao-Ching came back strongly in the second set by breaking them twice to win the second set 6-3 and level things up.

With two sides winning one set each, the match went into the super tie-breaker. To seeds Murray and Hao-Ching won the super tri-break 10-8 to enter the quarter-finals.

--IANS

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