New York: Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek pulled off a stunning victory against defending champions and number one seed Bob and Mike Bryan as they defeated them by 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the US Open semi-final here on Thursday.
It was a gutsy performance from the Indo-Czech duo which dashed the hopes of Bryan Brothers to become the first men’s doubles team since 1951 to claim calendar year Grand Slam. Paes-Stepanek strategy of coming all guns blazing paid off really well, as they came up with 42 winners in comparison to 29 from Bryans’.
It also proved that in the finals they might be too hot to handle for the pair of Austrian-Brazilian pair of Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares at the Flushing Meadows. Though, the Indo-Czech duo had a steady start but the real problem occurred during the first set with Stepanek making errors, especially on his serves.
Meanwhile, Bryan Bros kept coming hard on them and didn’t give away a single point on their serve in the opening set of this thrilling encounter. After the American pair broke them in the seventh game, they just raced away to take a 5-3 lead and they went on to seal the fate of the match. The Bryans had a smashing 95 percentage of first serve and with 14 winners and zero unforced errors, they were looking to repeat the finals of the 2012 US Open when they thrashed the same opponents in straight sets.
Paes-Stepanek didn’t get bogged down and came back strongly to take 2-0 lead as they broke the serve of the American pair. Though the fortunes kept swinging from one end to another as first Paes double faulted to give away a game but came back strongly to win the next one.
The Indo-Czech somehow kept their nerves and forced them to play at the nets which eventually created a lot of chances which they cashed in during the second set to keep the pressures on the defending champions.
The third set saw some aggressive brand of tennis from Paes-Stepanek which pushed the Bryans’ back to the wall, as they first broke to take a lead of 2-1 and then they broke again to hold on to their serve and extended the lead to 5-1.
Paes in particular was playing some perfectly timed drop shots that left the Bryans rattled again and again. Though, the defending champions did the late recovery to make it 5-4 but Paes-Stepanek won the match when Bob Bryan hit a low volley into the net.
