Max Miryni and Mahesh Bhupathi marched into the semi-final round of the elite-eight tournament with a straight sets victory over d**k Norman and Wesley Moodie at the ATP World Tour Finals on Friday. The 78-minute match score was 6-4, 6-4.
The Indian-Belarusian pair of Mahesh and Max has made it into the final-four stage for the very first time in three team showings at the World Tour Finals. They couldn’t go beyond the round robin stage in their first two appearances here back in 2003 and
2004.
By virtue of this victory, they will next take on the Polish team of Marcin Matkowski and Mariusz Fyrstenberg on Saturday. In the second semi-final battle at the prestigious event in London, the 2009 winners, Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan will meet Nenad Zimonjic
and Daniel Nestor.
While commenting on their semi-final match against the Poles, Bhupathi said,
“They won the group, but we have beaten them every time we have played them in 2010. It is going to be a good contest.”
Mahesh and Miryni in their concluding round robin clash on Friday drew first blood with a break of serve during the third game of the opening set. Mahesh blasted a return winner off the Moodie serve, which the passing Norman could not handle. Seeded number
three to win the title in London, Mahesh and Miryni served brilliantly throughout the match and went on to clinch a one set lead with a hold to 15 by Max during the tenth game.
In the decisive set, Mahesh and Max continued their lead and played some great tennis to maintain their dominance till the end. Both of them did well to quickly earn a lead of 5-3 and won two match points during the ninth game after a tremendous backhand
winner off a smash by Mahesh. They however couldn’t convert those chances but made no mistakes as Max sealed win in the next game.
“Going into the battle it was a must-win situation for us, so we were happy to get it done. We played quite well, very solid. I thought we served really well and glad that we won.” declared Mahesh after his victory on Friday.
Meanwhile, in the singles action, the 24-year-old Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic of Serbia also made their way into the semi-final rounds with straight sets wins in their respective clashes on Friday.
World number one, Nadal got the better of Tomas Berdych in two sets in the morning session match. The final match score was 7-6, 6-1.
In the second singles match on Friday, the highest ranked Serbian, Djokovic, brushed aside his American foe, Andy Roddick in straight sets with a score line of 6-2, 6-3.
Rafa will take on Andy Murray in the semi-final match as he is in quest for his first season finale title whereas Djokovic will meet Roger Federer for a spot in the title battle in London.
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