Bhupathi-Mirnyi out, Bopanna-Qureshi in semis of Nice event

New Delhi: Top seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi suffered a shock defeat but Rohan Bopanna and

Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi eased into the semifinals of the ATP 250 event in Nice, France. Bhupathi and Belarussian Mirnyi lost their quarter-final 3-6, 3-6 to Italian pair of Andrea Seppi and Potito Starace to crash out of the euro 398,250 clay court event. However, Bopanna kept the Indian flag flying as he and his Pakistani partner scored an easy 6-3, 6-2 win over the British pair of Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski in their last-eight stage match. They will now fight it out with Leos Friedl of Italy and Serbian Dusan Vemic for a place in the summit clash. Bhupathi and Mirnyi split euro 3,500 and earned 45 ranking points each. PTI