US Open: Sania-Bethanie in third round

New York: Indo-American pair of Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands moved into the women`s doubles third round of the US Open here at the Flushing Meadows.

Sania-Bethanie, seeded 13th, defeated the unseeded Croat-Hungarian pair of Darija Jurak and Katalin Marosi 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 39 minutes Saturday. The Indo-American pair broke their opponents four times, twice in each set, to earn a straight sets victory. They have a tough task ahead as they face Italian second seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci for a place in the quarterfinals. In mixed doubles, Leander Paes with Elena Vesnina of Russia overcame unseeded American-Filipino duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and Treat Conrad Huey 6-4, 7-5. The third seeds wrapped up the game in one hour and 19 minutes to enter round two. Paes-Vesnina will next take on American duo of Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky for a place in the quarters. Rohan Bopanna`s US Open campaign came to an end as he, with partner Jie Zheng of China, lost to Australia-Dutch pairing of Anastasia Rodionova and Jean-Julien Rojer 2-6, 5-7 in one hour and eight minutes in the first round of mixed doubles. Bopanna partnering Mahesh Bhupathi had lost Thursday in the first round of men`s doubles to Australians Matthew Ebden and Bernard Tomic. In the junior men`s singles event, India`s Sumit Nagal qualified for the main draw upsetting Brazilian Hugo Cesar Dojas 7-6 (3), 7-5 in round two of qualifying. He next faces eight seed Kaichi Uchida of Japan in the first round. IANS