The Indian players in the fray at the two ongoing ATP clay tournaments in Houston and Marrakech had contrasting results on Wednesday.
ATP Houston
The Indo-Brazilian team of Leander Paes and Andre Sa lost their opening match to the Bryan Brothers, who are the top-seeds in the doubles draw. The Bryans won in straight sets 6-0, 6-4 in 61 minutes, converting six of the 11 break points on Paes and Sa’s serve. They also saved three of five break points on their serve as well.
Reader notes: "Watching Houston doubles, Bryan Bros vs Paes-Sa. Combined age of players 158"
— Jon Wertheim (@jon_wertheim) April 13, 2017
The Bryans will face the all-Indian team of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja in the quarter-finals. Sharan and Raja overcame the Indo-American duo of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Donald Young in their first round matchup, 6-7(5), 7-5, 10-6 in an hour and 40 minutes.
Sharan and Raja faced only one break point in the match, in the opening set, before breaking back to take the set into the tie-break. In the second set, the converted their second break in the match to win the set and take the match into the deciding tie-break that they won with relative ease, with a margin of four points.
ATP Marrakech
Third seeds Rohan Bopanna and Marcin Matkowski advanced to the quarter-finals in Marrakech with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Marcus Daniell and Marcelo Demoliner. The Indo-Polish team saved the sole break point on their serve that came about in the first set and converted two of the three break points on their New Zealand-Brazilian opponents, one each in each set.
Rohan Bopanna / Marcin Matkowski over Marcus Daniell / Marcelo Demoliner 6-4 6-3 | ATP Marrakech 2017 https://t.co/pPyz1yVppV
— Mark Nixon (@markalannixon) April 12, 2017
Bopanna and Matkowski will face the British-Croatian team of Dominic Inglot and Mate Pavic in the last-eight.