Third seeded Indian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan disposed of the challenge Bulgarian pair of Alexander Donski and Alexandar Lazarov in straight sets 6-3, 6-1 in 50 minutes and advanced into doubles semi-final of the € 586,140 ATP Tennis Tournament in Bulgaria on Friday.
In the semifinals, the Indian pair will play Cheng-Peng Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Christopher Rungkat of Indonesia.
However, Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Purav Raja went down fighting to Nikola Mektic of Croatia and Jurgen Melzer of Austria 5-7, 6-4, 10-5 in the doubles semi-final which lasted one hour an 29 minutes.
Nedunchezhiyan and Raja fired four aces and committed the same number of double faults. The Indian pair won 32 out of 42 first points and 15 out of 30 on second service.
Mektic and Melzer recorded eight aces and committed a solitary double fault. They won 37 out of 48 points on first service and 11 out of 20 on second service.
Both Nedunchezhiyan and Raja earned €2,510 and 29 ATP points.
In a similar ATP event in France, Leander Paes of India, partnering Benoit Paire of France lost in the doubles semi-final to top seeded Ivan Dodig of Croatia and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France who posted straight sets 6-3, 7-6 (3) verdict in the € 524,340 ATP Tennis Tournament in Montpellier ( France). The contest ended in one hour and 20 minutes.
Dodig-Roger-Vasselin fired nine aces and committed a single double fault. This pair won 89 per cent (34/38) points on first service and 78 per cent (14/18) points on second service. Paes-Paire had three aces to their credit and committed six double fault. They won 69 per cent (27/39) points on first service and 59 per cent (13/22) on second service. Paes-Paire saved five out of six break points. Paes-Paire earned €8240.(UNI)
