| Thursday, 3 July 2008 Written by Sally Easton After spending 3 hours and 1 minute as rivals in a men’s doubles semi-final match, Mike Bryan and Kevin Ullyett came back out on court to face each other all over again – this time in a mixed doubles quarter-final. And Mike’s brother Bob, also in that marathon men’s double (which the brothers lost), was on court in a different mixed match. Mike Bryan retained his number one seeding from the mens’ in the mixed doubles. Along with partner, 28-year-old Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik, this was the only mixed match that went according to the form book. Playing against fifth seeds Ullyett and Ai Sugiyama, they took just 24 minutes to bank the first set 6-3. But Sugiyama, for whom this is an impressive 16th consecutive visit to Wimbledon, and Ullyett, were having none of it. They broke in the fourth game of the second set for a 3-1 lead, and held on to their advantage to win the set 6-3 and force a decider. Bryan and Srebotnik seized the first break in the final set to lead 4-2. But the fifth seeds immediately garnered three break-back points, all of which were elegantly saved through repeated net interceptions by Bryan. At 5-3, he served out the match, finishing with his partnerships’ 12 ace of the match. Brother Bob is unseeded in the mixed doubles, but this has not stopped him and Samantha Stosur of Australia slaying a few seeds along the way, including the number four seeds in the previous round. They similarly showed no mercy against 9th seeds Andy Ram of Israel and Nathalie Dechy of France, taking the match 6-4, 6-2 in just 49 minutes. With Bryan being a little terrier at the net, poaching and scurrying, Dechy soon found herself serving at 2-5. On the first match point, Dechy double-faulted to allow Bryan and Stosur into the semis. In the last mixed doubles quarter-final to take place, 3rd seeds Pavel Vizner and Kveta Peschke, both from the Czech Republic, were unable to make any impact on the Russian duo of Igor Andreev and Maria Kirilenko. Having raced away with the first set, Andreev and Kirilenko then broke in the crucial seventh game of the second set for a 4-3 lead. In short course, Andreev served to take the match, 6-3, 6-4, in an hour and 10 minutes. Jamie Murray and Liezel Huber booked their place in the semis yesterday.
| 
Subscription Video (Live)
Free Video
