Bopana-Cuevas battles into pre-quarters of Monte Carlo

Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and his Uruguayan partner Pablo Cuevas kicked of their clay-court season on a winning note as they bounced back from a set down to advance to the pre-quarterfinals of the Monte Carlo Masters here on Wednesday.

After comfortably winning the first set, the Indo-Uruguayan duo went down in the second before rebounding strongly to register a 6-3, 6-7 (7-9), 10-2 win over the Polish-Austrian pair of Marcin Matkowski and Alexander Peya in a thrilling opening round clash of the men's doubles event.

With the win, Bopanna and Cuevas have now set up a clash against the American-South African pair of Rajeev Ram and Raven Klaasen for a place in the quarter-finals.