On Tuesday, India’s most experienced tennis star Leander Paes and his Australian partner Mathew Ebden got better of second-seeded Croatian-Slovakian pair Ivan Dodig and Filip Polasek in the Dubai Tennis Championships to advance into the quarterfinal of the championship. The Indo- Australian pair defeated the Croatian-Slovakian 6-4, 6-3 in the round of 16 matches.
Leander Paes and Matthew Ebden outplayed their rivals in the first set, with both teams losing their serve in the third and fourth games. However, after this, the Indian veteran and his Australian partner once again took the lead in the 9th game, breaking the service of the Croatian-Slovakian to win the 10th game with their service, thus winning the first set 6-4.
The second set saw an amazing contest once again and both the teams kept their service intact and raised hopes of taking the set to a tie-breaker. But in the seventh game, the pair of Paes-Abden took the lead, breaking the service of Dodig-Polacek. The Indian-Australian duo then won the next service game, surprising Dodig and Polasek, and then once again broke Dodig-Polasek’s serve to make it the last game of the match-winning the second set 6-3. Thus, the Indo-Australian pair of Leander Paes and Matthew Ebden advanced into the quarter-finals with straight-sets victories.
Paes and Ebden face Finland’s Henri Kontinen and Germany’s Jan-Lennard Struff in the quarterfinal clash on Thursday. The Finish-German pair of Henri Kontinen and Jan-Lennard Struff had outsmarted the Croat-Brazilian pair of Mate Pavić and Bruno Soares 7-6,7-6 in a tough round of 16 clashes.
The Finish-German pair of Henri Kontinen and Jan-Lennard Struff had also defeated the pair of Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Carreno Busta in the qualifiers of the tournament.
At the same time, in the men’s singles, Indian player Prajnesh Gunneswaran lost in the first round of the Dubai Duty-Free Tennis Championship. Prajnesh, who got a wildcard entry, lost 4-6,3-6 in straight sets to Austrian qualifier Denis Novak.
Denis will now face Karen Khachanov of Russia, who defeated Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 7-6,6-1. In other matches, Yasutaka Uchiyama of Japan beat Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan 3-6,6-1,6-2, Gaël Monfils beat Martin 6-4,7-5, Andre Rubel beat Lorenzo Musetti 6-4, 6-4 and Richard beat Lloyd Harris 7-6,6-4 to enter the second round.
