Fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles survived a scare from spirited qualifiers Somdev Devvarman and Kevin Anderson before winning a gruelling four-setter to enter the second round of the Wimbledon men's doubles event on Wednesday.
The Indo-Bahamian pair came through 6-7(4), 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 in a nerve-wracking battle in which the Indo-South African duo pushed the fourth seeds to limit before going down in three hours and 15 minutes.
In the opening set, Somdev and Anderson twice overcame a 1-4 deficit -- the second time in the tie-breaker -- to go one up.
But the Indo-Bahamian pair used all their experience to survive the fight, winning the next three sets.
Bhupathi and Knowles broke Somdev and Anderson in the second game of the match to take a 3-1 lead. The qualifiers had a chance to break their superior rivals in the fifth game but Bhupathi and Knowles ruthlessly punctured their hopes.
However, Somdev and Anderson were in no mood to surrender and saved a breakpoint each in the sixth and eighth games and squeezed in a break in the seventh game to make it 4-4.
The next four games went with serve and it all boiled down to the tie-breaker, where Somdev and partner won six points in a row to take the set.
The qualifiers then had an early break opportunity in the second set -- in the second game -- but the seeded players not only saved that but also went on to break them in the fifth game.
Somdev and Anderson then wasted two breakpoints in the eighth game and lost the second set.
The third set also witnessed an intense fight, as first 10 games went with serve and both the pairs saved a breakpoint each.
Bhupathi and Knowles converted their third chance in the 11th game and held the next one to take the lead.
Somdev and Anderson dropped serve in the first game of the fourth set but made a good comeback, riding on breaks in the fourth and sixth games, which gave them a 4-2 lead.
However, Bhupathi and Knowles broke twice the seventh and 11th games -- before serving out the match.
