'Indian Express' into Doubles Final
The top seeded Indian Doubles pair won an exciting and intense match on center court at the 2011 Aircel Chennai Open. Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes defeated their Croatian opponents, Marin Cilic and Ivan Dodig, by a score line of 6-1, 6-7(4-7), 10-5.
The Indian top seeds got 80% of their first serves in and broke their opponents in the 4th and 6th game of the first set. The Croatian players fought back in the 2nd set, where they served 5 aces and saved a break point in the second set, and eventually winning it 7-6 (7-4) in the tie-break.In the third set, the ‘Indian Express’ displayed tremendous poise and understanding, to win the deciding super tie-breaker 10-5.
The fans at the stadium were overwhelmed with joy as their favorite doubles team pulled off a win, in a very closely contested and gripping semi-finals match.
The Indian duo said, “We played two very good singles players. It’s a great start, but we have still got a really tough match ahead of us tomorrow. Tennis is a funny game, so we don’t know how it’s going to go. We have to concentrate on our service game and play an aggressive match. We haven’t lost serves so far, but we hope to do much better in the finals. Cilic’s backhand is world class. We are ready to jump start tomorrow’s match. This game is our bread and butter, so we will really have to bring our best game to court tomorrow.”
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, who will be attempting to win their 5th title together at this event, will play the finals against the winner of the semi-finals match between Janko Tipsarevic (SRB)/Simone Bolleli (ITA) and Robin Haase (NED)/ David Martin (USA).
