Bopanna, Aisam march into final

Indo-Pak pair scores hard-fought victory over Butorac and Ram

The third seed Indo-Pak pair edged past fifth seed American pair of Erico Butorac and Rajeev Ram 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 in the semifinals, on Friday night.

In the 70-minute battle, no pair could convert the one breakpoint each they got in the first set, which had to be settled through a tie-breaker.

Bopanna and Qureshi did not offer any chance to their rivals in the second set and converted one of the five breakpoints to advance to the summit clash. They next meet winners of the other semifinal between Steve Darcis-Kavier Malisse and Karol Beck-Harel Levy.

The final will be played on Sunday. India’s challenge ended in the singles with the defeat of Somdev Devvarman in the quarterfinals on Friday. Somdev lost 1-6, 3-6 to second seed David Ferrer.

Monfils in semis

Top seed Gael Monfils powered into the semifinals with a 6-1, 6-4 victory over Taiwan's Lu Yen-hsun on Friday.

The Frenchman, ranked 13th in the world, swept past Lu in 56 minutes to set up a meeting with third seed Feliciano Lopez of Spain. Lopez went through with a 7-6, 6-3 triumph over American Rajeev Ram. 

Monfils took an early grip against Lu by breaking serve in the second game and he stayed on top as his opponent produced 33 unforced errors.

Lopez thumped 12 aces on the way to his 96-minute win over Ram.
France’s Stephane Robert defeated David Ferrer of Spain 7-5, 6-4 in the other last four clash.