Leander Paes and Martin Damm staged a splendid fightback in the second set to book a place in the last eight at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells on Wednesday.
The fifth seeds beat Poland's Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-3, 7-5 in a second round morning match.
The US Open champions, quickly off the blocks with a 3-0 lead, saved six break points before succumbing in the seventh game, when the Poles converted the last of their triple break points off Damm's serve. They fought right back, winning the next two games as Paes served out the first set in 34 minutes.
Damm's serve was again under attack early in the second set, as the young Polish pair broke him in the second game to surge into a 3-0 lead. Though Paes also looked shaky on his serve in the fourth game, and recorded the team's first double fault, he held on to put them on board at 1-4.
The Indo-Czech pair grabbed their chance in the ninth game, as their opponents faltered while serving out the set at 5-3, winning five games in a row (from being 5-2 down) to enter the quarter-finals.
They will take on fourth seeds Paul Hanley of Australia and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe for a place in the semi-finals.
Hanley-Ullyett ended Roger Federer's campaign at Indian Wells, as the world number one and Swiss teammate Yves Allegro went down 6-3, 2-6, 11-13 in the second round on Tuesday.
More from rediff