Wimbledon: Paes-Stepanek knocked out, Sania out of women’s doubles

LeanderPaes & Stepanek

London: Indian challenge in the men’s doubles competition of the Wimbledon ended on Thursday with both Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna losing their respective semi-final matches after being engaged in gruelling five-setters.

Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin gave the formidable US pair of Mike and Bob Bryan a scare before losing 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-3 in a battle that lasted for two hours and 48 minutes.

Paes and his Cezch partner Radek Stepanek lost to 12th seeds Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Brazilian Marcelo Melo. The Croat-Brazilian pair won 3-6 6-4 6-1 3-6 6-3 after two hours and 55 minutes.
Paes and Stepanek started off well winning a break of serve and wrapping up the first set in 35 minutes. The second set was also evenly contested for around 46 minutes which Dodig-Melo won
with a break of serve.

The winners then broke the serve of the veteran Indo-Czech pair thrice in the third game to win the set 6-1 in just 22 minutes.
The fighter in Paes came to fore as he and Stepanek then made a comeback winning the fourth in just over half an hour to level the proceedings.

If Bopanna and his partner’s loss was due to inexperience of not playing too many Grand Slam semi-finals, Paes and Stepanek with a cumulative age of nearly 75 years couldn’t match up with their much younger opponents.

Sania Mirza’s unimpressive campaign at the Big W ended as she and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau lost to eight seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic in two-break sets in the mixed doubles quarter-final.

Nestor and Mladenovic won 7-6 (7-5) 7-6 (7-5) with Mirza making a number of unforced errors in the second tie-breaker which cost them the match.

Mirza and Tecau infact broke the opposition’s serve in the second set only to lose the initiative and couldn’t make any further inroads. Mirza’s service also was a problem as Nestor repeatedly attacked her second serve while 20-year-old Mladenovic’s net play was far better than her much senior Indian opponent.

Rohan Bopanna and his Chinese partner Jie Zheng lost their mixed doubles quarter-final match to Jean-Julien Rojer of Netherlands and Russian Vera Dushevina in a close three-set encounter today.
The Dutch-Russian pairing beat the Indo-Chinese duo 6-3 3-6 6-3.
The seventh seeded Asian combo lost the first set, but fought back in the second only to disappoint in the final set of the match.

PTI

Source: http://to.ly/mfKq