Veteran Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Denis Istomin erased a one set deficit to edge past Oliver Marach and Florin Mergea in their opening round match of the Dubai Duty Free Championships on Wednesday.
Bhupathi and Uzbekistan's Istomin defeated the Austrian-Romanian pair 4-6, 6-3, 16-14 in an hour and 29 minutes to make the last-eight stage.
Saving five break points was key to Bhupathi-Istomin's victory even as they committed seven double faults.
The Indo-Uzbek pair cashed in on both the break chances that came their way.
They will now clash with the second seeded Indo-Pak team of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi.
Image: Mahesh Bhupathi
Photograph: Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images
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