Tashkent Challenger: Leander Paes-Andre Begemann enter semi-finals with hard-fought win

Tashkent: Veteran Indian tennis star Leander Paes and his German partner Andre Begemann eked out a fighting win over Oleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan and Ukraine’s Denys Molchanov to enter the semi-finals of the men’s doubles event of the Tashkent ATP Challenger on Wednesday. Seeded third, Paes and Begemann had to sweat it out to register a close 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 win in the super tie-breaker over their rivals. [caption id=“attachment_3048434” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Leander Paes of India and Andre Begemann of Germany. Getty[/caption] The Indo-German combination came back from being 2-4 down in the super tie-break to wrap the match after Leander’s splendid court craft to level scores. The match lasted one hour and 25 minutes, and both the doubles teams converted three break points each. Despite hitting five double faults, Paes and Begemann saved seven of the 10 break points that they faced to eventually prevail in the match. Overall, the Indo-German pair won four more points than their opponents (70 to 66), winning the ones that mattered the most in the super tie-break. Paes and Begemann will now face local wild card holder pair of Sanjar Fayziev and Jurabeck Karimov in the last four round. Fayziev and Karimov got a walkover from Mirza Basic of Bosnia and Slovakia’s Blaz Kavcic in the quarter-finals. (With inputs from agencies)