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Bhupathi-Mirnyi crash out

Paris: Top seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi suffered a shock defeat but Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi eased into the semifinals of the ATP 250 event in Nice, France on Thursday.

Bhupathi and Belarussian Mirnyi lost their quarterfinal 3-6, 3-6 to Italian pair of Andrea Seppi and Potito Starace to crash out of the euro 398,250 clay court event.

However, Bopanna kept the Indian flag flying as he and his Pakistani partner scored an easy 6-3, 6-2 win over the British pair of Colin Fleming and Ken Skupski in their last eight stage match.

Meanwhile, unheralded Argentine Leonardo Mayer shocked fifth seed Marcos Baghdatis 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals of the Nice Open. The 23-year-old Mayer, ranked 59, needed three hours to get past the world number 29 from Cyprus.

Baghdatis becomes the sixth seed to fall here with top seeded Swede Robin Soderling going out on Wednesday, along with fourth seed Thomaz Belluci of Brazil, Spaniard Albert Montanes (six), Germany's Michael Berrer (seven) and Pole Lukasz Kubot (eight).

Mayer will play either Spanish second seed Fernando Verdasco or Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine for a place in the final.

The results: At Nice (Nice Open): Quarterfinals: Leonardo Mayer bt Marcos Baghdatis 5-7, 6-3, 6-4; Fernando Verdasco bt Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-4. Second round: Gael Monfils bt Marco Chiudinelli 1-6, 6-1, 6-4; Verdasco bt Florent Serra 6-2, 6-2; Mayer bt Thomaz Bellucci 6-4, 6-1; Baghdatis bt Simon Greul 6-3, 6-2; Potito Starace bt Lukasz Kubot 6-3, 6-4; Richard Gasquet bt Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-0, 2-6, 6-3.

Doubles: Quarterfinals: Andrea Seppi & Potito Starace bt Mahesh Bhupathi & Max Mirnyi 6-3, 6-3; Rohan Bopanna & Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi bt Colin Fleming & Ken Skupski 6-3, 6-2.

At Warsaw (Warsaw Open): Quarterfinals: Zheng Jie bt Caroline Wozniacki 6-3 retd.; Li Na bt Sara Errani 6-2, 6-1; Alexandra Dulgheru bt Tsvetana Pironkova 6-4, 7-5. Second round: Caroline Wozniacki bt Polona Hercog 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

At Strasbourg (Strasbourg Open): Second round: Sofia Arvidsson bt Virginie Razzano 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

At Dusseldorf (World Team Cup: Red Group: Czech Republic bt Australia 2-1; United States bt Spain 2-1. Blue Group: France bt Serbia 2-1; Argentina bt Germany 2-1 . — Agencies

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