Paes and Klaasen fall at first hurdle to qualifiers Murray, Peers
Qureshi and Zimonjic enter quarter-finals with ease
Qualifiers Jamie Murray and John Peers teamed up to upset the IndoSouth African pairing of Leander Paes and Raven Klaasen 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (8) and book a place in the doubles quarterfinals yesterday.
Fresh from their final loss to the Bryan brothers Mike and Bob at the ATP 250 Delray Beach event last weekend, Paes and Klaasen were off to a strong start to take the opening set 6-2. However, Murray and Peers came to life in the second to win convincingly 6-4 to push the encounter into the match super tiebreaker — which the British-Aussie pair went on to win 10-8.
Last week saw the third final appearance in five tournaments this season for Paes and his South African partner. They started off with the title in Chennai and followed up with their second in Auckland.
Paes and Klaasen had been off to a strong start last weekend also in the match tiebreaker as they shot to 3-0 lead. However, the formidable Bryans had found their rhythm to close out the match in just over an hour to capture a record 104th career title.
Murray and Peers will now take on fourth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Daniel Nestor in today’s quarter-finals.
There was meanwhile good news for Pakistan’s Aisam-UlHaq Qureshi as he forged a solid combination with former world number one doubles specialist Nenad Zimonjic with a 6-2, 6-3 win over the third-seeded pair of Vasek Pospisil and Edouard Roger-Vasselin.
The legendary American doubles pair of Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan were up next later yesterday against Roberto Bautista-Agut and Joao Sousa to decide the last quarterfinalists.
Last week saw the third final appearance in five tournaments this season for Paes and his South African partner. They started off with the title in Chennai and followed up with their second in Auckland.