Paes romps into quarters

Leander Paes showed that he is still a force to reckoned with despite dropping to 233 on the world singles ranking, when he easily beat Nir Welgreen of Isreal 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 to sail into the quarter-finals of the $25,000 ATP tennis tournament in Bombay on Thursday.

Playing the serve and volley game to perfection, Paes first broke unseeded Welgreen in the eighth game, after dropping his own in the seventh, to level the score at 4-4.

He again dropped his serve in the ninth game, with a double fault, but fought back well to break his opponent in tenth game to make it 5-5.

The players held their serves in the next two games to force a tie-break.

In the tie-break, Paes served very well and with a few stunning back hand down the line shots took the tie-break 7-2.

In the second set, Paes dictated terms and with two breaks led 4-0. However, the Isreali fought well and broke Paes in the eighth game to narrow the margin to 3-5.

Welgreen held his serve in the ninth game but trailed 4-5 and was breathing down Paes's neck. However, the Indian kept his cool and served out the match at 6-4.

Top seeded Fillippo of Italy too had no problems beating qualifier Boris Borgula 6-3, 6-1 in 50 minutes while second seed and another Italian Vincenzo Santopadre needed one hour 35 minutes to sideline unseeded Ladislav Svarc of Slovakia 7-5, 6-4.