Tennis: Mergea and Bopanna qualify to quarterfinals of Halle ATP tournament

Romanian Florin Mergea and Indian Rohan Bopanna defeated Czech Lukas Rosol and Ukrainian Sergey Stakhovsky 2-6, 6-4, 10-8 on Tuesday to qualify to the doubles quarterfinals of the 1,574,640 euros ATP tournament of Halle (Germany).

Second seed Mergea/Bopanna took less than one hour to win on the grass court and get an 11,600 euro prize, plus 90 ATP points. In the quarterfinal, they will face Mergea's former doubles partner Marin Draganja (Croatia) and Henri Kontinen (Finland), whom they already outplayed 5-7, 7-6 (5), 10-6 in the first round of the Madrid Masters, before winning the title there.

Mergea and Bopanna came to Halle after winning the Stuttgart tournament, also on grass, last weekend.

First seed Horia Tecau (Romania) / Jean-Julien Rojer (Netherlands) are also in the doubles quarterfinals, where they will meet Germans Dustin Brown/Jan-Lennard Struff.AGERPRES