Bopanna-Ram enter quarters of Dubai Duty Free

Dubai: India`s Rohan Bopanna stormed into the quarterfinals of the men`s doubles event of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, even as ace singles player Somdev Devvarman crashed out of the tournament on Wednesday.

The newly-formed Indo-American pair of Bopanna and Ram defeated Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Jean-Julien Rojer of USA in straight sets 6-4 6-4 in their opening round match. Bopanna and Ram will next play the winners of the match between Romanian-Czech pair of Victor Hanescu and Lukas Rosol and Omar Awadhy and Hamad Abbas Janahi of UAE. However, it was curtains for India`s Somdev Devvarman who bowed out in the pre-quarterfinals against Argentina`s Juan-Martin del Potro in straight sets. The world No 7 defeated Devvarman 6-4 6-4 in over an hour to enter the quarter-final of the ATP 500 event. Devvarman, who is ranked 315th in the ATP list fought hard but the Argentine proved to be far too superior with his all-round game as he broke the Indian once in each set to clinch the match without breaking much sweat. 28-year-old Devvarman did come close to breaking his opponent`s serve on three occasions but failed to seize the initiative as Del Potro hit some lovely winners. His serving was also better than his Indian opponent as his first and second serve succes percentage of 84 and 68 percent was much better compared to Devvarman`s 64 and 56 percent respectively. PTI