Australian Open | Leander Paes and Purav Raja stun Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray to reach pre-quarters
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The Indian duo of Leander Paes and Purav Raja have entered in the third round of the men’s doubles after handing a shock defeat to fifth seeds Bruno Soares and Jamie Murray 7-6(3) 5-7 7-6(6). In the next round, they will face Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah for a place in the quarters.
Paes and Raja who are playing their second Grand Slam together managed to save only two break points out of seven. Their opponents saved two of four break points which forced the first set into a tie-breaker where Paes and Raja emerged as winners.
The second set was also a neck to neck contest as players from both sides evenly matched in the set but this time the Indian pair failed to capitalize on their chances. They have away five break-points and it gave an opportunity to the Brazilian-Briton pair who converted one of their break points which helped them in winning the set and the contest entered into the decider.
The fans witnessed a tight contest from the very beginning as after splitting the first two sets, it went into the decider. At one moment, the third set saw 5-5 in the tie-breaker, when Murray earned a match point for his side on his second serve. However, the Indians had their own plans as Raja's impeccable serves not only saved them the point but also got a match point for his side. Soares managed to serve down a match point and Raja delivered a stunning backhand return winner to seal the contest which lasted two hours and 54 minutes.
Earlier, Paes and Raja came together at the 2017 US Open but they fell in the second round. In the ongoing Australian Open, now they will fight against Colombian 11th seeds Cabal and Farah to reach in the quarterfinals.Â
The last time Paes featured in a quarterfinal of a Grand Slam was in 2016 at French Open where he paired up with Marcin Matkowski and lost the game against Mike and Bob Bryan.
