PARIS, May 29: India�s tennis star Rohan Bopanna and his men�s doubles partner Florin Mergea stormed into the quarterfinals of the French Open tennis tournament here on Sunday.
The sixth-seeded Indo-Romanian pair outclassed the duo of Brian Baker of United States and Marcus Daniell of New Zealand 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in one hour and 48 minutes in the third round to enter the last eight stage.
Bopanna and Mergea got their match off to a positive start, taking an important 4-2 lead over their opponent and from there on the duo broke Baker-Daniell�s serve twice to win the first set comfortably by a healthy 6-2 margin.
In the second set both the sides displayed their best on the court, winning each game to make it 6-6 and take the set to a tie-breaker.
Baker-Daniell were the dominant side in the tie-breaker as the duo played sensibly to edge past Bopanna-Mergea 7-4 to win the second set and level things up 1-1.
In third and final set, the sixth-seeded pair broke their opponents twice to take a handy 5-1 lead and from there on served brilliantly to win the last game and the set 6-1.
On the other hand, India�s veteran tennis player Leander Paes and his mixed doubles partner Martina Hingis cruised into the third round of the French Open tennis tournament on Saturday.
The Indo-Swiss duo of Paes-Hingis defeated fourth seeded Kazakhstani-Romanian pair of Yaroslava Shvedova and Florin Mergea 2-6, 7-5, 10-6 in one hour and 19 minutes in the second round.
The fourth seeded Yaroslava-Mergea started the match on a positive note taking an important 3-2 lead over their opponent.
Then a couple of break points and unforced errors by Paes-Hingis ensured that they took total control of the set to eventually win the first set 6-2 comfortably and go 1-0 up after play was halted for quite some time due to rain. � IANS
