Malisse/Norman overcome Bhupathi/Mertinak to reach the doubles quarters – Swiss Indoors Basel 2011
A surprising outcome was seen in the opening round of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel, as the fourth seeded duo of Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Michal Mertinak of Slovakia crashed out of the tournament at the hands of the unseeded
Belgian pair of Xavier Malisse and d**k Norman on Wednesday afternoon.
The Belgians took one hour and thirty four minutes of play to wrap up victory in three sets, 5-7, 6-3, 11-9, to get through to the quarter-final rounds of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 event.
The contest was staged on the indoor hard courts of the St. Jakobshalle in Basel, Switzerland, with the Belgian side disposing of the fourth seeded team in a nail-biter. After suffering a first round exit from the singles draw,
Malisse displayed his brilliance along with his fellow compatriot in the doubles encounter to make it to the quarter-finals.
Bhupathi and Mertinak were off to an excellent start in the competition and took the first set after a stiff contest with their opponents. Malisse and Norman turned the tide in the second set and blew away Bhupathi and Mertinak
to draw the scores back on even terms. A super tie breaker came into play and it also went to the wire before falling in the bag of the Belgian competitor, sending them in the round of eight of the tournament.
Bhupathi and Mertinak matched their opponents in every segment of the game and competed valiantly till the last minute of the game. Both teams registered one serve break each in the contest but it appeared just a matter of time
that Malisse and Norman clinched some crucial points in the contest to come out as the winners.
No serve breaks were seen in the opening 10 games of the match but finally the fourth seeded pair nailed one in the 11th game to reach 6-5. Bhupathi and Mertinak served out of the first set at 7-5, getting one up in
the contest but dropped their serve in their very first game of the following set to trail 0-3. They failed to recover from the early damage done by the break of serve and eventually lost the second set at 3-6. Malisse and Norman kept their focus in the intense
pressure situations of the decider and closed out the contest at 11-9 to register victory.
Malisse and Norman will either face the local wildcard pair of Stephane Bohli and Marco Chiudinelli, or the unseeded British duo of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins, in the next round of draw to fight for a berth in the semi-finals.
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