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Paes-Wawrinka beat Pospisil-Sock, enter Cincinnati quarters
Leander Paes and Stan Wawrinka beat 2014 Wimbledon doubles champions Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock to enter the men's doubles quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Open.
The Indo-Swiss men's doubles team of India's Leander Paes and Switzerland's Stan Wawrinka beat 2014 Wimbledon men's doubles champions Vasek Pospisil and Jack Sock in three sets to enter the men's doubles quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Open Masters 1000 tournament on Tuesday.
The unseeded pair ousted the Canadian-American eighth seeds Pospisil and Sock 7-6(4), 3-6, 10-3 in an hour and 17 minutes on the outdoor hard-courts of the Lindner Family Tennis Center.
The first set was a neck-and-neck affair and was evenly contested as neither pair conceded a single break point opportunity to the other. No break of serves meant the set entered the tie-breaker, where Paes and Wawrinka proved a tad bit better to seal the set 7-4.
The North American pair came back stronger in the second set to earn as many as nine break point chances to none for Paes and Wawrinka. However, they managed to convert only one but it was enough to clinch the set and push the match into the deciding super tiebreak.
The veteran Paes showed his class when it mattered. The 42-year-old was brilliant at the net, which helped the Indo-Swiss combination to easily clinch the super tie-break 10-3 and march into the last eight.
The loss was the fourth consecutive one for Pospisil and Sock.
Another Indo-Swiss combine -- Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis -- will play their women's doubles second round on Wednesday against the German-Polish pair Julia Goerges and Klaudia Jans-Ignacik. The top seeds had received a bye in the first round.
