Bopanna-Qureshi in US Open semifinals

New York: The fifth seeded Indo-Pak pair of Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi entered the semi-finals of the men's doubles event of the US Open defeating the British pair of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins in a gruelling three-setter on Friday.

At the end of the 135-minute battle, the Indo-Pak Express prevailed with a scoreline reading 7-5, 2-6, 7-5 in their favour. The duo will now take on the Polish pair of Marcin Matkowski and Maruisz Fyrstenberg who defeated Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi on Thursday.

It has been second year in a running that the pair of Bopanna-Qureshi has done well at Flushing Meadows, having reached the final the last time, eventually losing to the Bryan brothers.

It was indeed a tough fight for the Indo-Pak duo but their winning percentage of 85 percent on first serves proved to be decisive.

Although the winners made more unforced errors they also ensured that on half a dozen occasions, they were on the verge of breaking the British pair. But they were only successful on three occasions while the British pair only got four shots and converted three of them. Two of the breaks they got were in the second set when Bopanna and Qureshi looked out of sorts.