Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic are set to face Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic in the men's doubles quarterfinals at the All England Club on Thursday.
The Indo-Czech pair defeated the 11th-seeded Jean Julien Roger and Horia Tecau 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in the previous round. Paes-Stepanek surged into the lead by winning the first set in just 39 minutes but the Dutch-Romanian duo rallied back to take the second set.
Roger-Tecau played neck and neck with their much higher-ranked opponents and clinched the second set in the tiebreaker. The five-seeded Paes and Stepanek raised their game and clinched the third set and took two-games-to-one lead in the encounter.
The Dutch-Romanian pair tried to break Paes-Stepanek's rhythm in the fourth set, but the fifth seed found their mojo back and clinched the set in 44 minutes to advance into the last-eight of the tournament.
Meanwhile, Nestor-Zimonjic defeated Pablo Cuevas and David Marrero in the third round 7-6(10-8), 6-4, 6-4 to book last-eight clash with Indo-Czech pair. Both teams were evenly matched in the opening set, but Canadian-Dutch duo prevailed over Cuevas-Marrero in the opening set tiebreaker.
After winning the first set in 38 minutes, the third-seeded pair got into the groove and clinched the second and third sets in 33 and 30 minutes, respectively. Nestor-Zimonjic racked up 25 winners, compared to Uruguay-Spanish duo's 14 and used their first serve quite well.
Paes is the only Indian left in men's event of The Championships, after Indo-Pak express of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi was derailed by Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock in the second round.
In the mixed doubled event, Sania Mirza and Tecau cruised into the third round by beating Mate Pavic and Bojana Jovanovski 6-3, 6-3 in the second round. They will be facing Jamie Murray-Casey Dellacqua in the third round.
Schedule of Play
Leander Paes/Radek Stepanek vs Daniel Nestor/Nenad Zimonjic 5:30 pm IST, 8:00 am ET and 12:00 pm GMT
Where to Watch Live
The day's action is scheduled for 4:00 pm IST, 10:30 am GMT and 6:30 am ET start, with live coverage on Star Sports 1 and Star Sports HD1 in India and live streaming option HERE and HERE. International viewers can catch the action HERE and HERE or listen to the action free HERE.
BBC will broadcast matches live in the UK. Viewers can also live stream the action HERE or HERE. Catch the action live on ESPN in the United States or see live streaming HERE. SuperSport will telecast the action in South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa and viewers can catch the matches live HERE.
