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Indians at Wimbledon: Paes in quarter-finals of men's doubles
Veteran Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek advanced to the men's doubles quarter-finals at Wimbledon on Wednesday after a hard-fought victory.
The fifth seeded Indo-Czech duo prevailed over the Netherlands' Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau of Romania 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 7-5 in a match that lasted a little less than three hours on court number 3.
Paes-Stepanek won the first set 6-4 in just 39 minutes, but their opponents struggled their way back as they stretched the second set to the tie-breaker before winning it to draw level.
However, the experienced Indo-Czech pair found their rhythm back soon after and grabbed the next two sets, in 40 and 44 minutes respectively, to seal the third round match.
They committed just two unforced errors to the six by their opponents, though Rojer and Tecau had more winners in 24.
The victorious pair won 50 per cent of their points on the break.
Partnering Cara Black, Paes had earlier lost his mixed doubles match to Eric Butorac and Timea Babos.
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Bopanna in pre-quarter-finals of mixed doubles
Earlier, Rohan Bopanna and Andrea Hlavackova saved all three break chances they faced against the British team of Colin Fleming and Jocelyn Rae to progress to the pre-quarter-finals of the mixed doubles.
The seventh seeded Indo-Czech team brushed aside the spirited challenge of their unseeded opponents, winning 6-4, 7-5 in 69 minutes in the second round.
Bopanna-Hlavackova broke once in each set.
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Sania-Tecau advance
Sania and Horia Tecau of Romania, seeded sixth, outplayed Mate Pavic and Bojana Jovanovski 6-3, 6-3 in a rain-interrupted match that lasted 58 minutes.
Rain suspended play when the Indo-Romanian pair was leading 4-3 in the opening set, but after resumption, Sania-Tecau took little time to topple their opponents.
It was a total domination by Sania and Horia, who won 58 points against just 35 by their opponents.
The Indo-Romanian combo will now take on the 10th seeded pair of Jamie Murray and Casey Dellacqua.