Paes, Bopanna win their doubles matches to enter semi-finals

 

 London: India had a good day in the office as Rohan Bopanna secured his third Grand Slam semi-final berth while Leander Paes too sealed his place in the last four stage in the men's doubles competition at the Wimbledom here on Tuesday.
Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin, seeded 14th, overcame a fighting Swede-Canadian pair of Robert Lidstedt and Daniel Nestor in a marathon five-setter 7-5 7-6 (3) 6-7 (4) 6-7 (3) 6-2 in the rain-hit match in two hours and 45 minutes at court number two.
Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin had knocked out third seeds Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil in their previous match.

India had a good day in the office on Tuesday as Rohan Bopanna secured his third Grand Slam semi-final berth while Leander Paes too sealed his place in the last four stage.

It will be Bopanna's only third Grand Slam semi-final appearance and first at Wimbledon, having played US Open last-four in 2010, when he ended runners-up to American twins Mike and Bob Bryan and in 2011 when he did not go beyond the semi-final stage.
Bopannaa and Roger-Vasselin had a match point in the fourth set but Lidstedt and Nestor saved that and stretched the set into a tie-breaker, which they won to force decisive fifth set.
An early break handed Bopanna and his partner a 3-1 lead and that stayed with them for a win in the end.
In another quarter-final duel, veteran Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, seeded fourth, took two hours and 39 minutes to get the better 11th seeds Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Julien Benneteau of France.
Mahesh Bhupathi, who had announced at the beginning of the year that this would be his last ATP Tour, and Knowle lost to the Bryan twins from the US, Bob and Mike, in three straight tie-break sets, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4).