Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas were ousted from the Men’s Doubles event of the Australian Open as the Israeli pair of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram overcame their higher seed opponents with an identical 6-4, 6-4 straight sets scoreline to enter the finals of the grand slam season opener.
Bhupathi and Knowles could not continue their good run and failed to capitalise on the chances that came their way after upsetting world number one and top seeds Bryan Brothers. The duo didn’t prove any threat against eight seeds Erlich and Ram as they were shown the door in an hour and 32 minutes.
The sixth seeded duo oft Bhupathi and Knowles squandered as many as four breakpoints in the first set followed by two in the second while their opponents had broken their serve once in each set.
Erlich and Ram will now fight it out with seventh seed French pair of Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra for the title clash. Clement and Llodra defeated South African pair of Jeff Coetzee and Wesley Moodie 6-3 7-6(9) in a gruelling semi-final.
Meanwhile, India’s Yuki Bhambri gave good account of himself after continuing his superb run in the boys’ junior singles event. Yuki entered the semifinals after edging past Britain's third seed Daniel Evans in the quarter-final match.
The Delhi boy fought back hard against the stiff resistance put up by Evans to seal the match 7-6(5) 4-6 6-3 in his favour and moved to the semi-finals.
The eighth-seeded Indian will now meet with fifth seed local challenger Bernard Tomic, who surprised top seed Cesar Ramirez of Mexico 6-3 6-4 in his quarter-final contest, for final’s place.
|
|
Comments:
