Bopanna-Mergea enter Mercedes Cup semis

Stuttgart (Germany): Fourth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea served past Mate Pavic and Michael Venus in straight sets to enter the semifinals of the ATP Mercedes Cup, here today.

The Indo-Romanian pair beat the Croat-Kiwi combine 7-6 (5) 6-2 (10) in one hour and 17 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Euro 642,070 grass court tournament.

The tight first set was settled via a tie-breaker as the two pairs were 6-6 after trading a break each.

Saving both the break chances proved crucial for Bopanna and Mergea in the second set and they succeeded in breaking the rivals twice for a comfortable finish.

Bopanna and Mergea last month won the Madrid Masters title and ended runners-up at the Casablanca event in Morocco in April.

They next face the winner of the other quarterfinal between second seeded pair of Marcin Matkowski/Nenad Zimonjic and Dustin Brown/Andreas Haider-Maurer.