Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: India’s Yuki Bhambri and his partner Michael Venus of New Zealand progressed to the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the US Open. The 14th seeds defeated the No. 4 seeds, Germany’s Kevin Krawietz and Tim Puetz, in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4. Bhambri, India’s top-ranked men’s doubles tennis player at world No. 32, has reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.
Last year, Bhambri partnered with French tennis player Albano Olivetti for the US Open and made the pre-quarterfinals. The duo lost to Spain’s Marcel Granollers and Argentina’s Horacio Zeballos in straight sets. Earlier, Bhambri and Venus defeated the unseeded pair of Colombia’s Gonzalo Escobar and Mexico’s Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 6-1, 7-5 in an hour and 25 minutes at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre to progress to the pre-quarterfinals .
The Indo-Kiwi pair will next play the 11th-seeded team of the 41-year-old American veteran Rajeev Ram and his partner Nikola Mektic of Croatia. Ram and Mektic needed three tight sets—and nearly three hours—to edge past the unseeded team of Brazil’s Fernando Romboli and Britain’s John-Patrick Smith, 6-7(7), 7-5, 7-5.
