Paes, Sania Mirza, Bopanna advance

Update: 2014-01-21 23:51 GMT
Paes and his Slovakian partner Daniela Hantuchova, unseeded in the tournament, scored an upset victory over eighth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Vesnina of Russia 6-0 2-6 10-6 to make it to the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles. Sania and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black beat the pair of Eugenie Bouchard of Canada and Russia’s Vera Dushevina 6-4 6-3 in an hour and 12 minutes to reach the quarterfinals of the women’s doubles.

The Indian then joined hands with her Romanian partner Horia Tecau to outplay Anastasia Rodionova of Australia and Britain’s Colin Fleming 6-2 6-2 in a 51-minute mixed doubles pre-quarterfinal match. Another Indian, Rohan Bopanna and his partner Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia also entered the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles event after posting 7-6(5) 7-5 win over Australian duo of Ashleigh Barty and John Peers.

The mixed doubles pre-quarterfinal match involving two Indians in Paes and his one-time partner Bhupathi was an intense affair and lasted 57 minutes.After registering a comfortable win in the opening set, the Paes-Hantuchova pair slipped in the next one, even as Bhupathi and Elena converted two of the three break points to run away with the second set. The third and deciding set was a closely fought one but Paes and Hantuchova held on to their nerves to eke out a win. They will now take on the pair of Kristina Mladenovic of France and Daniel Nestor of Canada in the last eight round match.

Sixth seeds Sania and Cara hit 23 winners en route to their comfortable women’s doubles win over their unseeded opponents in the third round match. The Indo-Zimbabwean pair converted five out of seven break points, while their rivals could convert just two off six. Sania and Cara now have a tough task at hands as they will meet world number one Italian combo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals.

Meanwhile, Bopanna and Srebotnik took an hour and 21 minutes to get the better of their unseeded rivals. The Indo-Slovenian combination failed to convert as many as nine breakpoints out of 12 they got, but still managed to prevail over the Australian pair in a hard-fought contest.

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