New York: India's Leander Paes and Mahesh
Bhupathi are heading towards a possible final showdown in both
mixed as well as men's doubles event of the US Open after
winning their respective matches here.
Bhupathi and his American partner Liezel Huber, top seed,
cruised to the semifinals of the mixed doubles following their
emphatic 6-4, 6-3 win over eighth seeds Bethanie Mattek of the
US and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic.
However, second seeds Paes and Cara Black of Zimbabwe had
to face a stiff resistance from seventh seeded
Australian-Swede combination of Rennae Stubbs and Robert
Lindstedt before prevailing over them 7-5, 3-6, 10-6 in their
mixed doubles quarterfinal at Flushing Meadows, last night.
Incidentally, both the Indian players enjoyed success in
the men's doubles events as well although they had to fight
hard to earn their last eight berths along with their
respective partners.
While the third seeded duo of Bhupathi and Mark Knowles
of Bahamas quelled the challenge of unseeded pair of Yen-Hsun
Lu of Chinese Taipei and Israeli Dudi Sela 6-4, 6-4 in the
third round, Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy, seeded
fourth, beat Julian Knowles of Australia and Jurgen Melzer of
Austria 7-5, 6-4.
Meanwhile, India's Sudanwa Sitaram's campaign in the
boys' event ended in the first round after he went down
fighting 3-6, 6-3, 5-7 against local lad Alexander Domijan.
Bureau Report
First Published: Tuesday, September 08, 2009, 12:30