Bryan brothers two wins away from history

Top seeds Bob and Mike Bryan have edged to within two matches of claiming all four Slams in a row for the first time in their careers with a narrow win in three tie-break sets over eighth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Julian Knowle on Tuesday.

Having edged the first two tie-breaks 7-5 and 7-3 the twins ran to the net thinking they had won the third set on a double fault from Bhupathi at 5-4.

While both jokingly reached over the white tape to shake their opponents’ hands, the call for a fault never came and the Indian doubles veteran went on to hold serve for 5-5.

Despite the crowd seeing the light-hearted side to the misunderstanding, it was a nervous distraction before the Americans went on to take the third-set tie-break 7-4.

They will meet the No. 14 seeds Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin in the semi-finals after the Indian-French pairing survived a five-set comeback from the experienced sixth seeds, Daniel Nestor and Robert Lindstedt.

Rain interrupted the pair from finishing the match, crucially at 5-2 in the decider, before players returned to Court 18, where Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin sealed the 7-5, 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-7(3), 6-2 victory.

Fourth seeds and 2012 Australian Open champions Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek ensured two of the top four seeds would reach the semi-finals with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 victory over No.11 seeds Julien Benneteau and Nenad Zimonjic.

They await the winner of the final quarter-final between the No.12 seeds Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo and the unseeded pairing of James Blake and Jurgen Melzer.

Blake and Melzer sealed their place in the last eight with a third-round win over Colombians Juan-Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.

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