Paes-Stepanek in semis

Paes-Stepanek in semis
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Highlights

Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek advanced to the U S Open men's doubles' semifinals after a hard-fought...

Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek advanced to the U S Open men's doubles' semifinals after a hard-fought win in the last-eight stage here.

The fourth-seeded Indo-Czech pair defeated the fifth seeded combination of Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Dutchman Jean-Julien Rojer 6-1 6-7 (3) 6-4 in a match which lasted more than two and a half hour.
They will now be up against top-seeded American brothers Mike and Bob Bryan, who got the better of the 12th-seeded British pair of Colin Fleming and Jonathan Marray 7-6 (7), 6-4 in their quarterfinal match.
Paes and Stepanek started off well and broke their rivals twice, while holding their own serve, to clinch the opening set in just 33 minutes.
But they were stretched quite a bit in the remaining two sets which took almost an hour each to conclude.
In the second set, neither of the two teams conceded a single break point. Even though Qureshi and Rojer committed three double faults but fought hard enough to equalise and keep themselves in the match.
The third set was also closely-contested but Paes-Stepanek converted an all-important break point while Qureshi and Rojer frittered away the only one they got as the Indo-Czech pair sealed the issue.
Murray, Serena win World number one Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray raced into the US Open quarter-finals withcontrastings wins.
Top seeded Djokovic beat the Spaniard Marcel Granollers 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 while Murray scored a 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 win over Denis Istomin.
Swiss ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka eliminated fifth seed Tomas Berdych 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (8/6), 6-2.
Defending woman champion Serena Williams bset up semifinal showdown with record-making Chinese Li Na, with 6-0, 6-0 demolition omition of 18th seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0, 6-0, in 52 minutes on the Spaniard's 25th birthday yesterday.
Li, the 2011 French Open champion, overcame nervous feelings for a 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2 victory over Russian 24th seed Ekaterina Makarova.
Two-time Australian Open winner Azarenka reached the last eight by beating Serbian 13th seed Ana Ivanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a match postponed from Monday due to rain.
Azarenka took advantage of Ivanovic's 42 unforced errors and broke the fellow former world number one nine times in the match, advancing despite surrendering seven breaks herself and hitting just 21 winners.
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