Paes-Melzer taste sweet success against Bhupathi-Bopanna

Leander Paes had match point for a place in the finals of the Tour Finals in London last year, when Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna snatched it away from him. That, and their acrimonious past meant that their second round encounter at the Monte Carlo Masters was waited upon with anticipation. The match did lack the gravitas associated with the November duel, but Paes, playing alongside Jurgen Melzer, must have relished the easy 6-2, 6-3 victory over their sixth seeded opponents. The victory helped the unseeded Paes-Melzer duo to reach the quarters of the Monte Carlo Rolex Masters.

The Indo-Austrian duo got off to a breezy 4-1 start with a break in the fourth game of the first set. The sixth seeds had their first and only opportunities of the match in the seventh game, but Paes-Melzer saved both break points to force their opponents to serve to stay in the set. The pressure did the trick, as they fell behind 15-40 and even though they saved the first break point with a sharp drive volley, the unseeded duo converted at the second time of asking to seal the set in 27 minutes.

In the second set, the fourth game proved to be pivotal once again, as Leander and Melzer made the break to take control of the match. The Indo-Austrian pair held to love in the fifth game to consolidate their hold on the match with a commanding 4-1 lead in the second set. The sixth seeds made an effort to cling to slim hope, but were forced to deuce in the eighth game. While Mahesh and Rohan managed to save that and two more match points in the next game, they eventually succumbed when Paes-Melzer converted their fourth opportunity to clinch a spot in the last eight.

Paes-Melzer saved both the break points they faced in the first set, while managing to keep their slate clean in the second set. The fact that the Indo-Austrian duo won 70% of their second serve points compared to just 33% for the all-Indian pairing helped them take charge of the 55 minute match. The reward though wasn’t entirely just, as Leander and Melzer now face the formidable task of challenging the Bryan brothers in the next round.

The third seeds Robert Lindstedt and Daniel Nestor also fell off the rails when they lost to the scratch pairing of Milos Raonic and Bernard Tomic 6-7(7), 3-6 to join Bhupathi and Bopanna on the dump heap.