Australian Open: Bhupathi-Bopanna, Sania-Vesnina enter doubles pre-quarters
India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna beat Carsten Ball and Treat Conrad Huey 6-2, 6-2 to move into the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals at the Australian Open tennis tournament here on Saturday. Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina advanced to the round of 16 in the women's doubles.
The fourth seeded duo of Bopanna-Bhupathi recorded an impressive 87 percent of first serves in their second round match against the Australian-Filipino combine of Ball and Huey. The Indians smashed 16 winners as they wrapped up the match in 58 minutes. They next play Americans Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram.
Leander Paes along with Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek reached the pre-quarterfinals on Friday.
Sania, partnered by Russia's Vesnina, won 7-5, 7-5 against Czech-Italian pair of Eva Birnerova and Alberta Brianti 7-5, 7-5 in another second round match.
The sixth-seeds, however, looked far from convincing, making 33 unforced errors in comparison to their opponents' 30. The match could have gone either way but Birnerova and Brianti converted only three out of the 16 break points and lost the match in an hour and 57 minutes.
The Indo-Russian pair will play 12th seeds Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the pre-quarterfinals.
Vesnina in her second match of the day paired up with Paes to beat compatriot Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Belarus' Max Mirnyi 6-2, 7-5 in the first round of the mixed doubles.
The fifth seeds took an hour and 11 minutes to dispose of their opponents.
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