SHANGHAI - The Brazilian Marcelo Melo and Croatian Marin Cilic gave another blow and advanced to the semifinals of the Shanghai Masters 1000.
Melo, the only Latin American still in the race, and Cilic defeated the American Eric Butorac and German Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 7-6 (5).
The Brazilian, 20th in the ATP doubles rankings, looking at Shanghai tenth career title and first in the year. Also in 2012 he played a final in Memphis.
The next challenge for Melo and Cilic will face the Indian Leander Paes and Czech Radek Stepanek, favorite rooms and one of the most experienced circuit pairs. They come from beating Austrian Jurgen Melzer and Canadian Milos Raonic 7-5, 6-7 (4) and 10-5.
For their part, the Indians Mahesh and Rohan Bopanna Bhuphati, seventh favorite, defeated 7-6 (7), 6-4 to Belarussian Max Mirnyi and Canadian Daniel Nestor, second-seeded and defending champions.
Bhupati and Bopanna will play in the semifinals against the British Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins, who left on the road to Pakistani Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi and Jean-Julien Rojer Dutch 7-6 (2), 4-6 and 12-10 .
