Paes/Stepanek stun Mirnyi/Nestor in the doubles semi-final – Australian Open 2012
Hot favourite second seeded duo of Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor was stunned by a magnificent display of high quality doubles tennis from Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek in the semi-final clash of the Grand Slam Down Under on Wednesday. The Indo-Czech combination proved deadly for the second seeds and registered a memorable victory in two hours and 13 minutes to earn a title shot in Melbourne, Australia. The final scores of the match were 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, in favour of the unseeded competitors.
It was a tough competition for Paes and Stepanek but the two veterans continued their wining momentum from the quarter-final victory to take down the second seeded opponents. The Indo-Czech duo stuck to the basics and kept the error-count to a minimum throughout the game. They took the better of Mirnyi and Nestor on their serve, securing 40 out of 64 first serve points in the game while the second seeds kept lingering far behind with 29 points.
Mirnyi and Nestor were off to a flyer in the opening set and drew first blood in the fourth game to lead 3-1. Paes and Stepanek were not prepared for such onslaught and sunk further to drop their serve once again in the eighth game to gift away the first set to their opponents at 2-6.
Tide turned in the following set when Paes and Stepanek cashed in a vital opportunity in the seventh game to register their first break point of the day. The second seeded contestants couldn’t recover from the deficit and eventually their opponents took the second set at 6-4.
Both teams threw the best they had at each other in the final set to remain alive in the contest. Paes and Stepanek stunned everyone with two successive break point conversions in the third and fifth game to earn a massive lead of 4-1. Mirnyi and Nestor made their last attempt to make comeback in the match by breaking serve in the sixth game but it was all too late. Paes and Stepanek closed out the contest at 6-4, marching their way into the final of the Australian Open to have ago at the coveted championship title.
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