Bopanna-Ebden advance to Miami Open quarterfinals

Indian tennis player Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden moved to the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the Miami Open with a hard-fought win against Hugo Nys and Jan Zielinski.

Top seeds Bopanna and Ebden toiled for one hour 39 minutes before pulling off a 7-5, 7-6 (3) win over Monegasque Nys and Poland’s Zielinski in the second round of the ATP Masters 1000 on Monday night.

The 43-year-old Bopanna and Ebden will take on Australia’s John Patrick Smith and Netherlands Sem Verbeek.

The reigning Australian Open champions hit four aces and won 84 per cent (37/44) of their first serve points.

The match was contested on an even keel. Bopanna and Ebden broke Nys and Zielinski in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead. They then fought off a late challenge, saving a couple of break points before taking the 12th game and the opening set.

There was not much separating the two pairs in the second set as well with both of them holding serve till 6-6 to take the match to the tiebreaker.

But a double fault by Nys and Zielinski led to their downfall as the Indo-Australian duo capitalised on it to take the set and the match.