PARIS, May 31: The third-seeded Indian pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi stormed into the French Open doubles quarterfinals with a 6-4, 7-6 (7) win over Swedish pair of Fredrik Bergh and Peter Nyborg in an hour and 20 minutes.And in one of the biggest upsets so far, second seeds Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde crashed out in the round of 16 to Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor 4-6, 2-6. The Indians are the highest seeds left in the bottom half of the draw. The Indians won the first set in a mere 25 minutes, with a break in the seventh game. In the second set, they went down 0-2 after Bhupathi dropped his serve. They broke back in the third but Paes was broken right back in the next. After breaking back in the fifth, both pairs held serve, even though Paes/Bhupathi had a break point in the 11th.
The tie-breaker was a close fight but the Indians managed to hang on. They have already logged 163 plus 14 bonus.
Meanwhile, no Indian has made it to the main draw for boys and girls for the junior FrenchOpen.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
