New Delhi: Second seeds Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi rallied to beat Argentines Guillermo Canas and Juan-Martin Del Potro in a fierce contest to advance to the finals of the Ordina Open in Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands on Friday.
Paes and Bhupathi beat Canas and Potro 6-7 (6), 6-3, 10-7 in a marathon battle lasting more than one and a half hour.
In the finals, the Indians will face off against the Croat-Austrian pair of Mario Ancic and Jurgen Melzer, who beat the Belgian-French duo of Steve Darcis and Marc Gicquel in the other semi-final of the $175,000 event.
In an enthralling contest, the unseeded Argentine pair gave Paes and Bhupathi tense moments from the very start and the Indian duo had to save two break points just a couple of minutes into the match.
They saved another couple of breaks in the 10th game but were also guilty of frittering away five break points as the set went into a tie-breaker.
The 53-minute opener ended with Canas and Porto finishing it off 8-6 in their favour.
Jolted by the opening setback, Paes and Bhupathi stormed back into the match in the second set and broke their rivals in the opening game itself.
They got another chance to break their rivals in the third game but Canas and Potro saved it.
However, Paes and Bhupathi made no mistake in the seventh game and converted one of the two break points they got to make it 5-2.
The Argentines broke back in the eighth game but lost their serve in the very next game as the Indians equalised.
The super tie-breaker turned out to be a see-saw battle but the experienced Indian duo held their nerves to earn two match points before eventually wrapping it up to win their toughest match of the tournament so far.
Comments
0 comment