Indian Express steamrolls over the Bryan Brothers to reach semis – ATP World Tour Finals 2011
A stunning performance from the fourth seeded Indian Express, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes, was witnessed at the glorious O2 Arena in London, as it inflicted a crushing defeat to the world number one duo of Bryan Brothers,
Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan, in their last round robin matchup at the Barclays ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour Finals on Friday night.
Bhupathi and Paes took merely 58 minutes to dump the top seeded American pair in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2, earning a place in the semi-finals of the season ending grand finale. The Indian were jolted early in the tournament when
they lost their first clash to the sixth seeded duo of Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau but made a strong comeback to take down the seventh seeded team of Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner to remain alive in the competition.
The Indians dropped merely five points on their first serve, clinching 26 out of 31 en route to victory. They crafted a total of six break opportunities in the contest and converted half of them, whereas the Bryan brothers utterly
failed to register a single break of serve in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end.
Bob and Mike suffered their first jolt of the day when their Indian opponents stung the first break point conversion in the third game of the match, courtesy to a double fault from Mike. Bhupathi and Paes remained solid in the
rest of the opening set and held on to their lead to finish it off at 6-4.
The Indians carried on their onslaught in the following set as well, breaking the Bryans in the very first game to lead 2-0 early. Bob dropped serve again at 1-3, letting Bhupathi and Paes to seal victory in a convincing manner
in the game to follow.
The fourth seeds are now 32-14 in the season and their Friday’s victory levelled their head-to-head record to 3-3 against the Bryans in doubles encounters. Bhupathi and Paes have already bagged three ATP championship titles in
this year so far and their current form depicts that they are well up to clinch glory in the season’s final showdown in London.
Bhupathi and Paes will meet the eighth seeded Pole opponents, Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski in the semi-final round to battle it out for a title shot in the final of the mega event. The eighth seeded duo made it to the
semi-finals from Group B with a 2-1 winning record.
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