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Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and his Uruguayan partner, Pablo Cuevas caused a major upset by ousting the top seeds and reigning Wimbledon champions, Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the quarter-finals of the Erste Bank Open in Vienna on Thursday. Bopanna and Cuevas needed 1 hour 39 minutes to edge the Brazilian-Polish combine, 6-7(3), 6-4, 10-8.
They will next take on fellow unseeded pair of Lucas Pouille and Karen Khachanov for a place in the final of this ATP 500 event. The latter stunned the third seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares, 2-6, 7-6(3), 10-7 in another quarter-final.
Bopanna and Cuevas powered seven aces past the top seeds and won 76% of their first serve points. They were able to save five out of the six break points they faced and converted two out of the four they had.
The pair finished with a total of 77 points while Kubot and Melo could only bag 73 points. They were brilliant in their first round match and dropped just three game en route to a commanding 6-2, 6-1 win over the pair of Philipp Kohlschreiber and Max Mirnyi.
Bopanna has played most of the 2017 season alongside Cuevas with their best result coming at the Monte Carlo Masters in April where they won the title.
Sharan continues to shine
Meanwhile, there were some great results for Indian tennis players on the ATP Challenger circuit. Divij Sharan reached the semi-finals of the Brest Challenger in France alongside Scott Clayton of Great Britain.
The two pulled off a 7-6(5), 6-3 win over the German pair of Yannick Hanfmann and Kevin Krawietz in 1 hour 22 minutes. Up next for them is the French duo of Tristan Lamasine and Hugo Nys, who beat the Indian combine of Leander Paes and Purav Raja in the quarter-finals.
The Indian southpaw is having a good couple of weeks. After finishing as the runners-up in partnership with Yuki Bhambri at the Tashkent Challenger, Sharan won his third career ATP title in Antwerp last week alongside Scott Lipsky. He is very much intent on carrying on with the same confidence this week as well.
At the Suzhou Challenger, the top seeds Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia made it through to the semi-finals. They emerged 6-3, 6-4 winners over the Swedish-Japanese team of Marcus Eriksson and Naoki Nakagawa.
