New Delhi: Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek scrapped past the challenge of Santiago Gonzalez and Scott Lipsky, but Sania Mirza and Cara Black lost to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova in the first round of Wimbledon Championships on Saturday.
Fifth seeded Indo-Czech pair Paes and Stepanek had to battle for three hours to beat Gonzalez and Lipsky 3-6 6-1 3-6 6-3 11-9 in the rain-hit marathon opening round of the grass court Grand Slam. Paes and Stepanek could convert only four of the 17 break chances in the contest and dropped their serve twice.
Meanwhile, fourth seeds Sania and her Zimbabwean partner Cara suffered a shock 6-2 6-7(7) 4-6 defeat at the hands of unseeded Russian-Czech pair.
ISN
