Sport

Paes and Bhupathi cruise into the quarterfinals

— PHOTO: AP

ON COURSE: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi seemed to be in good form against Brazil’s Andre Sa and Marcel Melo, and look ready for stiffer challenges ahead in the draw.

BEIJING: Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi defeated Brazil’s Marcelo Melo and Andre Sa 6-4, 6-2 for a place in the doubles quarterfinals at the Olympic Green Tennis Centre here on Wednesday.

In an entertaining contest that spanned just over an hour, the Indian duo stepped it up to make sure that there was no anxiety en route the quarterfinals.

The Indian pair broke Sa at love in the third game to seize the initiative. Thereafter, it was a matter of controlling the errors and sailing with the flow, which the Indian duo did with a touch of assurance, much to the delight of the sizeable Indian gathering that filled the limited seating at court No. 7.

The Brazilians seemed to lack the subtle nuances of doubles play, and tended to go for broke, which the Indian pair had no trouble handling.

After missing a couple of set points in the ninth game on Melo’s serve, the Indians sealed the first set with Bhupathi serving it out at love.

Paes and Bhupathi drove home the advantage, breaking Melo in the first game of the second set, with the Brazilian delivering a double fault on breakpoint.

There was a slight hitch when the fourth game went to deuce after Bhupathi had held two game points, but the Indians were too experienced to let go their stranglehold over the proceedings.

Sa’s serve was broken in the seventh game on the third breakpoint and Bhupathi duly served the match out, with Paes stamping his authority with one of his numerous volley winners.

The key to the contest was once again good serving, as Paes and Bhupathi dropped only nine points in all on their serve in the whole match.

“It is another good performance and builds our confidence. But, it is not about playing one good match. We need to keep playing good the whole week. It is about maintaining our professionalism and the camaraderie. Every team is tough and everyone is trying to play their best for their country. I don’t want to jump the gun. You have high calibre teams, and nothing is easy,” said Paes.

Paes said that the duo was ready to play either the fourth-seeded pair of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland or Russians Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny, who had ousted defending champions Fernando Gonzalez and Nicolas Massu of Chile in straight sets.