Bryan Brothers Fall In Second Round

© Getty ImagesTop seeds Mike and Bob Bryan fell in staight sets.

It took Oliver Marach four years to get a win over World No. 1 doubles team Bob and Mike Bryan, but his streak of six losses finally came to an end Monday, as he and Janko Tipsarevic bewildered the Bryans 7-5, 6-4 to advance into the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open.

The Austrian, whose full-time partner Lukasz Kubot is not playing this event, was elated to get the victory. “I feel unbelievable because I’m always scared against them. I was 0-6 against the Bryans and I think in five matches, they won in 50 minutes,” Marach said.

Marach and his Serbian partner broke the twins in the middle of the second set and managed to hold their nerve to lock up the upset. “Today Janko played unbelievable – he kept me on the court. I started nervous especially when they got the break back,” said Marach.
“For sure the Bryans didn’t play their best match but I think today we played very smart, took our chances, and I think at the end, we were the better team on the court.”

Marach and Tipsarevic now play seventh seeded Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, who edged Michal Mertinak and Dick Norman 7-6(4), 3-6, 10-8 in a second round dogfight. Mertinak and Norman looked to have the upper-hand in the match tie-break, but the “Indo-Pak Express” pulled together to squeak out the victory.

The other three seeded men’s doubles teams in second round action Monday all won. No. 2 seeds Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor were unfazed in their win over Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny, dispatching the Ukranian-Russian pairing 6-4, 6-2 in one hour. Mirnyi and Nestor converted three of six break point chances and did not face break point, winning 80 percent of their service points.

Up next for the Belarusian-Canadian duo are eighth seeded Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau. The 2010 Wimbledon finalists overcame a height disadvantage to defeat Americans John Isner and Sam Querrey in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. Lindstedt and Tecau returned exceptionally well, breaking team “Quisner” three times and winning 43 percent of their return points.

No. 4 seeds Jurgen Melzer and Philipp Petzschner were three set winners over Lukas Dlouhy and Paul Hanley, taking the second round match 6-2, 4-6, 10-6. The 2010 Wimbledon champions, who won the ATP World Tour 500 event in Rotterdam last month, will play the long-standing Israeli partnership of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram for a spot in the semi-finals. This will be the first career meeting between the two teams.