The top seed Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna today survived a scare from the British-Belgian pair of Ken Skupski and Xavier Malisse to enter the quarterfinals of the Aircel Chennai Open 2012 here.

Bhupathi and Bopanna, a new pairing after Leander Paes and Bhupathi decided to part ways again after their brief reunion last year, battled back after losing the first set 5-7 to win the second set 6-3 and win the Match Tie-breaker 10-5.

The Indian pair took an 8-3 lead in the ten-point match tie-breaker before allowing Malisse and Skupski to notch up two points, before the Britisher’s forehand return went long to give the match to Bhupathi and Bopanna. Malisse and Skupski have a doubles ranking of 26 and90 respectively.

After an initially tentative display, which included being broken in the first game, the pair grew in confidence as the match progressed.

Bhupathi later said his pairing with Bopanna was “not pretty but greedy”.

Bopanna, for his part, said the struggle in the first set was down to “pretty much getting used to playing with each other”. “This was our first match of the season. We had a lose first game and were broken, which was not ideal”.

Bhupathi said he had “put in a lot of hours in December” in the off season ahead of the Chennai Open. Bhupathi and Bopanna, who have a doubles ranking of seven and 11 respectively, will meet the Swiss-German pair of Stanislas Wawrinka and Andreas Beck in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

The Indian pair looked very much a work in progress as the instinctive chemistry that seemed to characterize Bhupathi’s pairing with Paes was missing. Bopanna regularly fired in aces that put the team in an advantageous position and almost always followed up with a backhand return into the net, thereby frittering away the advantage.

Bhupathi showed that none of his reflexes have dimmed with the passage of the years, exhibiting some wonderfully placed backhand shots across the court and engaging in some stirring rallies at the net with Skupski.

While Bhupathi and Bopanna broke their opponents in game 10 of the first set and game eight of the second, Malisse and Skupski broke Bhupathi and Bopanna in games one and 11 in the first set.

Ken & Xavier now head to Melbourne to compete in the Australian Open.

From the LTA

Ross Hutchins & Ken Skupski are into the men’s doubles final at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

The pair, representing England, are the third seeds and upset the Indian second seeds in three sets.

After dropping the opener by virtue of one break the pair hit back to win 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.

The second seeds consisted of the Indian’s Somdev Devvarman & Rohan Bopanna and they were backed up by a vocal, partisan home crowd at the R.K.Khanna Tennis Stadium.

The first set was decided by one break of serve, finishing 6-3 in the favour of the No.2 seeds but the English pair matched their opponents in set two to break and also win 6-3.

The third set was on serve until Hutchins & Skupski gained the crucial break to move 4-3 up, and after saving three break points in the next game from 0-40 down, Ken Skupski went on to serve out the win with a 6-4 final set score.

“I feel so pleased,” said Skupski afterwards. “I’m representing England, and getting a gold or silver is great and I’m now looking forward to the final so much. It is also a good birthday present for my mum.”

Hutchins added, “It’s awesome getting to the final and playing for gold. There was a great atmosphere on centre court and I loved every minute of the tension.”

Ross also tweeted his appreciation on Twitter, “Thank you for all your messages… this is the proudest moment of my life and I’m so happy to be here right now representing England… now mixed!”

Ross’s father and Team England Tennis Captain Paul Hutchins commented, “Yes I’m bias, but I really thought they deserved to win as they played well at key stages and complimented each other really well despite playing this week for the first time.”

In the final they will play the Australian fourth seeds Paul Hanley & Peter Luczak who also caused an upset, disappointing the home fans once again as they beat the Indian No.1 seeds Leander Paes & Mahesh Bhupathi 6-2, 6-2.

Later on in an all British mixed doubles semi-final Scottish players Colin Fleming & Jocelyn Rae won 6-3, 1-6, 7-5 against England’s Ross Hutchins and Anna Smith to seal their place in the final.

Fleming & Rae now face the No.1 seeds Anastasia Rodionova & Paul Hanley in the final whilst Hutchins & Smith will compete for the bronze medal against fellow English pair Ken Skupski & Sarah Borwell.

Ken and Colin head off to Roland Garros after exiting the Nice ATP event at the quarter final stage. On Monday they shocked the No. 2 seeds Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau with a 6-1 6-7 11-9 win. Unfortunately today they couldn’t summon up a repeat performance and went down 6-3 6-3 to Bopanna/Qureshi.

The lads can now look forward to their first ever trip to Roland Garros.