Paes-Bhupathi in semis; Bopanna-Qureshi ousted in Miami

By IANS,

Miami : India’s Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi progressed while compatriot Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi faltered in the men’s doubles quarterfinal of the Sony Ericsson Open tennis here.


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The third-seeded Paes and Bhupathi overcame sixth seeds Michael Llodra of France and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 6-3, 6-7(4), 10-7 here Wednesday.

In the semifinals, the ‘Indian Express’ will meet the unseeded Oliver Marach of Austria and Serb Janko Tipsarevic, who knocked out No. 7 seeds Bopanna and Qureshi 6-4, 7-6(8).

Bhupathi and Paes both reached the final here last year, but stood on opposite sides of the net, with Paes and Czech Lukas Dlouhy defeating Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus for the title.

The Indian veterans are playing together in Miami for the first time in 12 years, and made second-round exits in three straight visits from 1997-99.

They came together this year at the Australian to complete a career Grand Slam but lost to the Bob and Mike Bryans in the final.

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