Paes-Damm pair wins, qualifies for semis; Bryans out

Shanghai, Nov 16 (UNI) Dame luck smiled on sixth seeds Leander Paes and his Czech comrade-in-arms Martin Damm who beat seventh seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram and pipped top seeds Bryan brothers to move into the semifinal of the Tennis Masters Cup by virtue of winning percentage of sets.

The Indo-Czech pair proved third time lucky and after two straight defeats, they finally recorded a 6-4, 7-6(6) win against the Erlich-Ram pair to finish their Red Group round robin assignments with a 1-2 record.

Paes and Damm showed better co-ordination today and claimed the first set playing compact tennis.

Their rivals managed to stretch the second set to tie-breaker but Paes and Damm held their nerve in crunch situation and in the end, came out with flying colours.

They had previously lost the first two matches against Paul Hanley-Kevin Ullyett pair before Bob and Mike Bryan also tamed them after a three-set thriller.

The Indo-Czech pair owes their semifinal berth to fourth seeds Paul Hanley and Kevin Ullyett who stunned the Bryan silblings 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 to come out of the round-robin league with a perfect 3-0 record and book their semifinal berth.

After the round robin phase, Paes-Damm, Erlich-Ram and the Bryans finished with a 1-2 record but Paes and Damm won the spot because of highest winning percentage of sets.

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