Daniell’s sights set on quarterfinals

AFTER storming into the third round, Kiwi doubles player Marcus Daniell is upbeat about his chances of going further than he ever has before at a grand slam at the Australian Open.

Daniell has matched his best performance at a grand slam, teaming with Britain’s Dominic Inglot to beat the French pair of Benoit Paire and Hugo Nys 6-4 6-2 in 53 minutes yesterday.

The draw has opened up for the Kiwi who had expected to face fourth seeds Nicolas Mahut and Pierre Hugues Herbert of France for a place in the quarterfinals.

However, the Frenchmen were upset in a third set tiebreak by the relatively unknown combination of Chilean Hans-CastilloPoolipink and Belarussian Andrei Vasilevski.

Daniell and Inglot beat Poolipink and Vasilevski en route to reaching the semifinals at an ATP tournament in Basel last October.

‘‘ We know them and are ready to dominate,’’ Daniell said.

Against Paire and Nys, Daniell and Inglot benefited from Paire struggling with a stomach muscle problem and being unable to serve properly.

‘‘Paire was injured and serving strangely, so it took us a while to get a read on it but we closed out pretty comprehensively,’’ Daniell said.

Daniell and Inglot won a tightly contested first set 6-4 converting one of their three break point chances. They were dominant on serve, getting 81 percent of first serves in in the opening set.

In the second set Daniell and Inglot took control with an early break and broke again to cruise through it in 24 minutes. They never faced a break point against their serve in the entire match and won a total of 57 points to 41.

Having reached the second week at Melbourne Park, Daniell is adamant he’s not finished yet.

‘‘I’m ready to go deep in a slam, so no reason why it can’t be this one.’’