Somdev loses; Paes, Bhupathi through

Unable to reproduce the form that has seen him cause a stir in the recent months, the world no 73 lost 4-6, 2-6 to the sixth-seeded Spaniard in the third round clash. However, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi brought some cheer after marching into the doubles pre-quarterfinals with a lop-sided victory over Eric Butarac and Jean-Julien Rojer. The veteran India duo defeated the American-Netherlands pair 6-2, 6-3 in just little over an hour.

Earlier, Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi warded off late resistance from the German-American pair of Philipp Kohlschreiber and Rajeev Ram to book their pre-quarterfinal berth. The seventh-seeded Indo-Pakistani pair beat unseeded rivals 6-3, 7-6 (7-5).

Bopanna and Qureshi will next face the Slovak-Belarussian pair of Michal Mertinak and Dick Norman.

Roddick exits

Defending champion Andy Roddick made a shock early exit in the singles battle on Saturday, suffering a second round loss to Uruguayan Pablo Cuevas 6-4, 7-6. The world number eight, struggled physically and needed medical treatment during the second set, said that he was likely suffering from a lingering bronchial infection.

“I had a little trouble breathing out there today. I’ve had something for a little while but I’m going to have it checked out when I get home,” the American told reporters.  Roddick was broken in the seventh game as 67th-ranked Cuevas took charge and although he battled on in a tight second set, he looked sluggish and bowed out in the tiebreak with consecutive forehand errors.

The win was the first for Cuevas against a top 10 ranked player and left the tournament without another drawcard after Britain’s Andy Murray was defeated by US qualifier Alex Bogomolov on Friday.

Number one seed Rafael Nadal had no such problems, however, and was satisfied with his 6-4, 6-4 win over Kei Nishikori of Japan.  Third seed Roger Federer also advanced, enjoying a routine 6-3, 6-3 win over Czech Radek Stepanek earlier on Saturday. 

The victory took Federer alongside Pete Sampras with 762 career wins, equal seventh overall. Jimmy Connors tops the list with 1,241 wins.