Day 8 of the US Open 2015 could not have got any better for India's Rohan Bopanna, who came out triumphant in both the men's and the mixed doubles on Monday. Leander Paes and his mixed doubles partner, Martina Hingis, also booked their semifinals berth, after their opponents Simona Halep and Horia Tecau handed the Indo-Swiss pair a walkover.
Bopanna along with his Romanian partner, Florin Mergea, faced the strong pair of Daniel Nestor and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the third round of the men's doubles competition. The sixth seeds came back from one set down to win the match 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-3.
Nestor and Roger-Vasselin, who came into the US Open full of confidence after winning the Cincinnati Masters, won the first set via a tie-break, which saw some exhilarating shots by the four players on the court, before the Canadaian-French pair held their nerve better.
Despite the first set loss, Bopanna and Mergea took the game to Nestor and Roger-Vasselin in the second and third sets. The Indo-Romanian pair took full advantage of their big service game as they came up with four and three aces in the second and third sets respectively.
As the match progressed, both Bopanna and Mergea looked confident and started to dominate, and Nestor and Roger-Vasselin were helpless against the class of the the sixth seeds, who are yet to win a doubles Grand Slam.
Bopanna and Mergea will face the unseeded pair of Dominic Inglot and and Robert Lindstedt in the quarterfinals.
After a win in the men's doubles, Bopanna's work was not done for the day as he had to prepare for his mixed doubles quarterfinal, partnering Yung-Jan Chan from Chinese Taipei. The second seeds were up against Su-Wei Hsieh and Henri Kontinen, and it proved to be another humdinger of a contest as the result was decided through a super-tie breaker.
Bopanna and Yung-Jan won the match 6-7 (7-9), 7-5, 13-11. With this victory, a mouthwatering semifinal clash has been set up against Paes and Hingis.
The Indo-Swiss pair have only played a single match in this competition, as they were handed walkovers in the last two rounds.
