MIAMI – Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and his Indian partner Rohan Bopanna eked out a hard earned win over Michael Mertinak of Slovakia and Dick Norman of Belgium to book a place in the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open here.
The seventh-seed Indo-Pak pair defeated their unseeded rivals 7-6(4) 3-6 10-8 in the second round of the hard court event. They will lock horn with giant-killers Oliver Marach of Austria and Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic, who shocked top seeds and local favourites Bob and Mike Bryan 7-5 6-4 in their pre-quarterfinal round.
Meanwhile, Roger Federer fought through a tough first set and turned it on in the second to beat Juan Monaco 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 as the Swiss clocked his 20th win of the season to advance at Miami. Top seed Rafael Nadal followed suit as he beat fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez for the seventh time in nine meetings, taking a 6-3, 6-3 decision.
Federer will next play longtime friend Olivier Rochus, a winner over Russian Mikhail Youzhny 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
