Favourites crash out in doubles quarters

Dubai: The top two seeded pairings crashed out in the quarter-finals of the doubles at the Dubai Duty Free Men's Open here yesterday.

The unseeded Austrian pair of Julian Knowle and Alexander Peya upset top seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in straight sets 7-6 (3), 7-6 (2), while Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram eased their way past second seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau 6-1, 6-2 in under an hour.

The seasoned pairing of Llodra and Zimonjic battled till the very end and should have closed out both sets, but a series of unforced errors towards the end did not help their cause as the Austrians stayed sharp in the tie-break.

Knowle and Peya now await the winners of the last quarter-final between Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna and Paul Hanley and Jamie Murray which was played late last night.

In the lower half of the draw, Erlich and Ram will take on the third seeds from Poland Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski, who had earlier scalped the unseeded duo of Michael Kohlmann and Sergiy Stakhovsky 7-6 (4), 6-3.