Indo Pak Express cruises into the semis at Indian Wells
The Indo Pak pair, Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, destroyed the Serbian pair, Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki in straight sets. They earned a breadstick to advance to the semis at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open on Wednesday.
The Indo Pak pair is in great form and has yet to lose a set. They overpowered America Curacao pair, Eric Butorac and Jean-Julien Roger in the first round and then upset the third seeded Chennai Express, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander
Paes in the second round to reach this spot.
The Serbian pair on the other hand comprised of the world number three Novak Djokovic and his in-form country man Viktor Troicki. They upset 7th seeded pair, Polish Lukasz Kubot and Austrian Oliver Marach in a 6-2, 4-6,
10-7 match to reach this spot.
In the opening set, the Indo Pak Express displayed their awesome skills and amazing co-ordination. Despite having a lower first serve percentage of 40 percent as compared to Serbs’ 68 percent, they registered a perfect 100 percent
win on it. They also converted two out of four breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to clinch the set with a breadstick.
The disheartened Serbian pair produced more unforced errors and double faults in the final set while Bopanna Qureshi team improved their co-ordination. They hammered four aces, saved all the four break points and had a higher first
serve percentage but they failed to convert the single breakpoint opportunity they earned. The match went to tiebreaker where the Indo Pak managed to edge past the Serbs and won the set 7-6(5).
They will next face the Ukrainian Belgian combination of Alexandr Dolgopolov and Xavier Malisse.
Dolgopolov and Malisse reached the semis after bouncing back against the British Murray brothers in (7)6-7, 6-3, 10-8 nail biter late night match.
In the opening set, both pairs enjoyed top form and produced almost a similar first serve percentage. They exchanged breaks twice and took the match to tiebreaker. They Murrays were able to edge past in the tough tiebreaker and
won the set 7-6(7).
The Brits lost their cool in the second set as they played poorly and lost their co-ordination. They committed 6 double faults and had a lower first serve percentage of 46 percent as compared to Dolgopolov – Malisse’s 52 percent.
The Ukrainian – Belgian pair on the other hand took full advantage of it and converted three out of five breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to win the set 6-3.
In the final set, the Ukrainian Belgian pair had a higher first serve percentage and earned 100 percent on their return points to win the set 10-8.
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