Cincinnati: Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin managed to win their duel against Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek which took them to the semi-final of the ATP Cincinnati Masters here on Friday.

 

It was a nail-biter as this clash went down to the wire but the Indo-French pair managed to pull out a victory with 6-3, 6-7 (3), 10-8 over the fourth seeded Indo-Czech duo. With this nerve-wracking win, Bopanna with his French partner is looking forward to the challenge of Spanish duo of Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez. If they win this contest then it’s going to be the second consecutive final for Bopanna.

In another quarterfinal clash, Granollers and Lopez managed to register a win against the Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-4, 6-2.

The other semifinal features Bryan brothers who are pitted against Mexican Santiago Gonzalez and American Scott Lipsky.

Meanwhile, in the women’s singles category, Serena Williams stamped her authority as she pocketed the first set in just 16 minutes. She won the tie by 6-0, 6-4 against Romanian Simona Halep.
 

Williams will now face on the fifth seeded Chinese Li Na, who advanced to the next round as Agnieszka Radwanska withdrew to attend the funeral of her grandfather in Poland.

Meanhwile, Serb former number one Jelena Jankovic beat Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-0, 6-4 to reach a fifth semi-final this season.