Paris, May 29 (IANS) India's tennis stars Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna stormed into the quarter-finals of their respective men's doubles events in the French Open here on Sunday.
The 16th-seeded Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski stunned fourth seeds Englands Jamie Murray and Brazils Bruno Soares 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4) in one hour and 43 minutes in the third round to enter the last eight stage.
Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea outclassed the United States' Brian Baker and New Zealand's Marcus Daniell 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-1 in one hour and 48 minutes in the third round to enter the last eight stage.
The sixth-seeded 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-Daniells 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.
Later on 16th seeded pairing of Paes and Matkowski gave a tough fight to their opponents but Murray-Soares held their nerves to make it 6-6 and forced the set to go into a tie-breaker.
But the first set tie-breaker also saw a close encounter which was eventually won by Paes-Matkowski 7-5 to take a vital 1-0 lead in the tie.
The second set also saw a nail-biting clash between the two sides as both the 16th and fourth seeds didnt kept winning individual serves to take the set to 6-6 and force yet another tie-breaker.
The Indian and his Polish partner eventually won the tie-breaker 7-4 to storm into the quarter-finals.
