Wimbledon: India’s Leander Paes and Canada’s Daniel Nestor entered the third round of the men’s doubles event at the Wimbledon tennis championships overcoming a stiff challenge from the Russian-Chinese Taipei duo of Teymuraz Gabashvili and Yen-Hsun Lu 5-7, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 7-5 here on Saturday.
The Indian-Swiss pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis also cruised to the third round of the women’s doubles, handing a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing to Japanese-Italian pair of Kimiko Date-Krumm and Francesca Schiavone on Friday.
The Indo-Swiss duo were ruthless from the very beginning and dominated the contest throughout, winning 56 of the 81 points played in the match, double faulting only twice and forcing their opponents into six unforced errors.
The Paes-Nestor duo took three hours and 15 minutes in a second round contest at Court 5 to advance.
The 11th seeded pair began the match on the wrong note, conceding the first set 5-7, after losing their sixth service game.
The match began on an even keel with both teams holding on to their serves but Paes-Nestor lost their serve at a crucial phase to lose the first set.
But they managed to turn it around in the next set.
With both teams fighting hard for every point the battle was intense. Both teams were unable to break each other’s serve as the proceedings moved towards a tie-break.
In the tie-break, Paes and Nestor, both veterans in the professional doubles circuit, utilised their considerable experience to claim it 7-3.
The third set also followed a similar pattern. With very little to choose between the two pairs, the contest again needed a tie-breaker, where Paes and Nestor prevailed 7-4 to surge ahead.
The advantage gave a strong foothold to the veteran duo but they were unable to kill off the contest with their opponents hanging on in the fourth set doggedly.
Gabashvili-Lu refused to concede defeat easily and continued to match their more seasoned opponents. But they erred just when it mattered most, losing their sixth service game of the fourth set to surrender the set and the match.
Paes-Nestor will next face eighth seeded pair of Brazilian Bruno Soares and Austrian Alexander Peya.
