New York: Ace Indian tennis player Leander Paes cruised into the last eight of the men's and mixed doubles events of the US Open tennis here at the Flushing Meadows. Meanwhile Sania Mirza too advanced into the quarterfinal of the mixed doubles on Sunday.
But it was also the end of road for Mahesh Bhupathi, who lost the first round of men's doubles with Rohan Bopanna, as he decided to pull out of the mixed doubles event with Andrea Hlavackova.
Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek eased through the third round of men's competition defeating America-Australian pair of Jesse Levine-Marinko Matosevic 6-1, 6-3. The fifth seeds broke Levine-Matosevic four times without losing a single game in the match.
In the mixed doubles, third seeded Elena Vesnina of Russia and Paes faced a tough challenge from Americans Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky but won 4-6, 6-4, 1-0(5) in one hour and 21 minutes. After exchanging the first two sets the Indo-Russian duo took away the tie-breaker with ease.
Meanwhile, Mirza and Fleming drubbed the American pairing of Melanie Oudin and Jack Sock 6-4, 7-6 (7) in one hour and 25 minutes. The Indo-British duo won the first set in 35 minutes. However, both teams held serve in the second set till the tie-breaker which Mirza-Fleming won 9-7 in a tough fight.
Sania, however, lost her women's doubles third round match partnering American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
By Indian Sports New Network
