Bofors booms, Spaniards sail
New York, Sept. 8: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi reached the semifinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in their career after recording a thrilling 7-5, 7-6 (2) win over 10th seeds Wesley Moodie and Dick Norman in the US Open men’s doubles quarterfinals here.
Reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals this year was the best ever performance for the 16th seed Indo-Pak pair before this memorable win. Bopanna, called Bofors by friends, is the only Indian left in the draw and was delighted with his good run in the last Grand Slam of the season.
“I can’t describe the range of emotions we went through today, it was such a closely fought match and to come out victorious in the end, it’s just unbelievable,” Bopanna said. The duo now face the unseeded pair of Eduardo Schwank and Horacio Zeballos for a place in the finals.
Meanwhile, Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams won their quarterfinal matches on Tuesday to set up a semifinal clash.
Clijsters beat Samantha Stosur 6-4, 5-7, 6-3 in the last eight clash.
In men’s play, No. 1 Rafael Nadal advanced with another three-set victory, this time over fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez. Nadal, who hasn’t lost a set or a service game yet in the tournament, advanced to play No. 8 Fernando Verdasco, who defeated No. 10 David Ferrer 5-7, 6-7 (8), 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (4).
Nadal-Verdasco will be the first all-Spanish quarterfinal in US Open history. It’s a rematch of their five-setter in the semifinals of the 2009 Australian Open. Nadal won that and is 10-0 lifetime against his Spanish rival. “He’s playing very good tennis, so it’s going to be a very interesting match,” Nadal said. “I have to play aggressive, to play well. It not going to be impossible, I think.”
Another quarterfinal will pit Mikhail Youzhny against Stanislas Wawrinka. Wawrinka beat Sam Querrey 7-6 (11/9), 6-7 (5/7), 7-5, 4-6, 6-4, which means no American man will be in the quarterfinals at the US Open for the second straight year.
On Wednesday, the other women’s semifinal will be set when No. 31 Kaia Kanepi plays No. 7 Vera Zvonareva in one quarter and No. 1 Carolina Wozniacki faces unseeded Dominika Cibulkova in the other. In men’s quarterfinal action, No. 17 Gael Monfils plays No. 3 Novak Djokovic and No. 5 Robin Soderling plays five-time champion, No. 2 Roger Federer.
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