Hanley/Marray dismiss Ouanna/Renavand to move to the semis – BNP Paribas Masters 2012
Australian-British tandem of Paul Hanley and Jonathan Marray book their place at the last-four stage by ousting local wild card entrants, Josselin Ouanna and Nicolas Renavand, in straight sets 7-6(6), 7-6(5) in the quarter-finals
of BNP Paribas Masters. This is the last ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event of the season, being held just before the season finale.
Hanley and Marray needed one hour and 37 minutes to grab this tough win.
The Australian-British duo and Ouanna/Renavand served superbly in the first set, as they did not allow each other to break even a single game from start to finish, equalising the proceedings at 6-6 and taking the set to a tie-breaker.
There was nothing to separate between the two teams till 6-6 but then Hanley and Marray grabbed two points in a row to seal it 7-6(6).
The story of second set was not much different from the opener, as both pairs held their serve throughout to square off the score at 6-6 and force a tie-breaker. However, Hanley and Marray attained an early lead this time, keeping
it intact till the end to win 7-6(5).
The Australian-British tandem banged in eight aces and committed only one double fault, keeping their first serve percentage at 67 and converting 41 of the 48 of them into points.
Marray, who is this year’s Wimbledon doubles champion, is earning good prize money these days. He said, "It's going to be a little cushion that I've never had in the past. Playing doubles at Challenger level you actually have to
win the tournament to make any kind of money. I won one in Sarajevo in March and I got 600 Euros for it. That covered my expenses. The accommodation is usually paid for, but with flights and food to buy, playing the Challengers is not very rewarding financially."
The Brit thinks that he can stay at the top level for some time now, "Once you get up there I think it's easier to stay around this kind of ranking. I'd like to keep playing for as long as I'm still enjoying it.”
Hanley and Marray will face Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna in the semi-finals.
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