French Open: Bopanna/Ebden Romp Into Semis With Hard-fought Win Over Belgian Pair Gille/Vliegen

American Rajeev Ram: India's Rohan Bopanna and his Australian partner Matthew Ebden romped into men's doubles semifinals at the French Open here on Wednesday, beating last year's finalists Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen of Belgium in three sets at Court Suzanne-Lenglen. Australian Open men's doubles champions Bopanna/Ebden beat Gille/Vliegen 7-6(3), 5-7, 6-1. The Indo-Australian pair, seeded second in Paris, had lost to the Belgian pair, seeded 10th in this event, at Indian Wells earlier this season.

Next up for the 44-year-old Bopanna and the 36-year-old Ebden is a rematch of the Australian Open final against Italy's Simone Bolelli and Andrea Vavassori, this time on clay. They lost their only previous clay court meeting to the Italians in Rome just a few weeks back. The Italian pair, seeded 11th in the French Open, reached the semifinals by upsetting the third-seeded combine of American Rajeev Ram and Joe Salisbury of Great Britain, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a quarterfinal encounter lasting one hour,56 minutes played on Court Simonne-Mathieu.

In their quarterfinal clash at Court Suzanne-Lenglen, games went with serve till 6-6 before Bopanna/Ebden won the first set tie-breaker by forcing three errors from Gille/Vliegen. In the second set, Gille/Vliegen survived a couple of break points in the sixth game before effecting a crucial break in the 11th game with a fine forehand winner to win the set 7-5.

In the decider, Bopanna/Ebden broke the service of their Belgian opponents in the second game and held their serve again to go 3-0 up. They again broke serve in the sixth game to win the set 6-3 eventually. The Indo-Australian pair had reached the quarterfinals by beating Bopanna's Indian compatriot N Sriram Balaji and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela Martinez in the pre-quarterfinals.