Butorac/Soares upset Qureshi/Rojer in the third round – Australian Open 2012
American-Brazilian duo of Eric Butorac and Bruno Soares shocked the eighth seeded junction, Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Jean-Julien Rojer of Curacao, in straight sets at the Australian Open 2012 on Monday. They clobbered a 6-4, 6-2 success over their higher ranked opponents to advance into the quarter-finals at this Grand Slam event taking place on the hard courts in Melbourne, Australia.
First time paired Butorac and Soares boldly stepped on court number three at the Melbourne Park and held their opening serve in the second game. The American-Brazilian tandem maintained consistency in their game and held entire serves after dusting away both breakpoints they came across. They cashed in the lone break opportunity in the seventh game and won the opener with a 6-4 score line.
Butorac and Soares rolled their momentum into the following set and earned the coveted break in the opening game. Later, they kept their entire serves without facing any breakpoint and capitalised on another break chance in the fifth game, ultimately sealing the deal by winning six games to two.
Overall, the tenth seeded pair of Butorac and Soares showed tremendous co-ordination and skills to stun the Pakistani-Dutch team in an hour long enthralling battle. They not only secured a place in the final eight but also moved a step closer to bag $454,500 prize money. The American-Brazilian collaboration formulated a lower first serve share of 71 percent as opposed to their rivals’ 80 percent but manifested magnificent 28 out of 34 points on it. They also coughed fewer unforced errors and smashed 27 winners to prevail.
The high spirited American-Brazilian pair will have to conquer the Indo-Czech team of Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek in order to reach the semi-finals. Butorac progressed to the final four at this tournament last year with Rojer but both decided to part ways this season.
In court number two, sixth seeded Polish team of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski outclassed their eleventh seeded rivals in order to join Butorac and Soares in the final eight. The Poles defended four out of five breakpoints they encountered and cashed in three out of five break opportunities to overpower Frantisek Cermak and Filip Polasek in straight sets.
Next challenge for the winning combination of Fyrstenberg and Matkowski is the top seeded team of Bob and Mike Bryan. The twins battled past 15th seeded British tandem of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in a three set thriller to set-up this clash.
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