Amritraj-Qureshi pair stuns 16th seeds in Wimbledon

London:

The unseeded Indo-Pakistani duo of Prakash Amritraj and Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi stunned 16th seeds Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins in a see-saw five-set battle to enter the second round of the Wimbledon men's doubles event, here on Wednesday.

Amritraj and Qureshi scripted a sensational 6-4, 6-7 (12) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 triumph after slogging it out for close to four hours in a match that spanned two days.

The two teams were locked 2-2 on Tuesday and Amritraj and Qureshi finished it off in their favour today.

The 16th seeded Australian-Brit pair of Huss and Hutchins were in for a tough fight. After losing the opening set, Huss and Hutchins battled it out for 70 minutes in the second to clinch it 14-12 in the tie-breaker.

Amritraj and Qureshi came back well to go one up again but not the ones to give up, Huss and Hutchins equalised in the next set.

The roller-coaster match finally ended with the Indo-Pak pair dominating the decider to script a magnificent triumph.

Earlier, fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles survived a scare from spirited qualifiers Somdev Devvarman and Kevin Anderson in a gruelling four-setter to enter the second round.

The Indo-Bahamian pair came through 6-7 (4), 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 in a thrilling battle in which the Indo-South African duo pushed the fourth seeds to the limits before going down in three hours and 15 minutes.

In the opening set, Somdev and Anderson twice overcame a 1-4 deficit, second time in the tie-breaker, to go one up. But the Indo-Bahamian pair used all its experience to survive the fight, winning the next three sets.

Bhupathi and Knowles broke Somdev and Anderson in the second game of the match to take a 3-1 lead.

The qualifiers got a chance to break their superior rivals in the fifth game but Bhupathi and Knowles punctured their hopes.

However, Somdev and Anderson were in no mood to surrender and saved a breakpoint each in the sixth and eighth games and squeezed in a break in the seventh to make it 4-4.

The next four games went with serve and it all boiled down to the tie-breaker, where Somdev and his partner won six points in a row to take away the set from their fancied opponents.

The qualifiers had an opportunity to break their opponents in the second game of the second set but the seeded players not only saved that but went on to break them in the fifth game.

Somdev and Anderson then wasted two breakpoints in the eighth game and went on to lose the second set.

The third set also saw an intense fight as first 10 games went with serve and both the pairs saved a breakpoint each. Bhupathi and Knowles converted their third chance in the 11th game and held the next one to take the lead.

Somdev and Anderson dropped their serve in the first game of the fourth set but made a good comeback, riding on breaks in the fourth and sixth games, which gave them a 4-2 lead. However, Bhupathi and Knowles broke them twice -- seventh and 11th games - before serving out the match.