After a disappointing second day, where Indian interest in singles ended, Wednesday offered home fans something to cheer about as Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi safely moved into the last eight of the Chennai Open.
The second seeds scored a comfortable 6-3, 7-6 (3) win over the Argentine-Brazilian combine of Eduardo Scwanck and Marcos Daniel.
The 'Indo-Pak Express' will next play the Dutch-American duo of Robin Hasse and David Martin, the latter having accounted for Asian Games gold medallists Somdev Devvarman and Sanam Singh in their opener.
- At 30, Rohan Bopanna is just starting
Bopanna and Aisam had a fairly easy outing first up, thanks mainly to their generous opponents. Schwank and Daniel played into the second seeds' hands for the most of the match, giving away a plethora of easy put-aways so to speak.
A break of serve in the fourth game proved enough for the Indo-Pak combine to pocket the opening set. And though Schwank and Daniel put up a better fight in the second set, they never really threatened their rivals.
The second seeds had three break-points in the 11th game and though they couldn't take that opportunity, they made no mistakes whatsoever in the tie-break, dominating right from the start to ensure a straight sets win.
The win helped the Indo-Pak Express remain on track to face the 'Indian Express' (Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi) in what is the most eagerly anticipated match ever since the draw was held.
Meanwhile, the American duo of Rajeev Ram and Scott Lipsky and Thai twins Sonchat and Sonchai Ratiwatana also advanced to the quarter-finals.
Ram and Lipsky breezed past the American-Dutch pair of Dustin Brown and Rogier Wassen, winning 6-1, 6-2, while the Ratiwatana brothers overcame stiff resistance from Britain's Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins to win 7-6(7), 6-1.
While Ram and Lipsky will meet Italy's Simone Bolelli and Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia in the next round,
Sonchat and Sonchai, who won the title in 2008, will take on the Croatian pair of Marin Cilic and Ivan Dogig.