It was a good day for Indian men’s doubles pairs on the ATP tour as Leander Paes, partnering Benoit Paire, advanced to the semi-finals of the Open Sud de France in Montpellier while the two all-Indian pairs Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan as well as Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Purav Raja reached the quarter-finals of the Sofia Open.
The Indo-French pair registered a convincing 6-1, 6-4 win over Radu Albot and Marcel Granollers to advance to the semi-finals, soon after Paire was dumped out of the singles draw by Tomas Berdych at the ATP 250 event.
In Sofia, Jeevan and Raja, playing their first match together as a long-term pairing on the ATP circuit, beat Robert Galloway and Nathaniel Lammons 6-4, 6-4 in the round of 16 while third seeds Bopanna and Sharan also had a good start, beating Mate Pavic and Nenad Zimonjic 7-6(2), 6-2 to reach the quarters of the ATP 250 tournament.
Meanwhile at the Dallas challenger, Indian N Sriram Balaji and partner Hans Hach Verdugo began their campaign with a 6-1, 7-5 win over Gonzalo Escobar and Nathan Pasha.
The other Indians in action are at the ATP Challenger in Chennai as well as the Fed Cup in Kazakhstan.
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