New York: Indian aces Mahesh Bhupathi and
Leander Paes breezed into the quarterfinals of the mixed
doubles event with their respective partners following
straight set wins over their opponents in the US Open tennis
tournament here.
Top seeds Bhupathi and his American partner Liezel Huber
eased past Jill Craybas and Eric Butorac of USA 6-3 6-3 in a
54-minute second-round match to stay in hunt.
They will next play either the Stephen Huss-Virginia
Ruano Pascual pair or eighth seeds Nenad Zimonjic-Bethanie
Mattek-Sands.
Second seeded combination of Leander Paes and Zimbabwe's
Cara Black saw off Italian Flavia Pennetta and Serb Dusan
Vemic 6-4 6-4 in 74 minutes to set up a quarterfinal clash
with seventh seed Rennae Stubbs of Australia and Robert
Lindstedt of Sweden.
Bhupathi and Huber were a bit sluggish with their
service as they committed five double faults compared to their
rivals' one but the top seeds more than made up by converting
all four breakpoints which came their way.
They also defended six out of seven breakpoints in the
process.
Paes and Black, on their part, played compact tennis to
see through their opponent's challenge.
Even though Penneta and Venic managed to break them once
in the first set, Paes and Black hit back, converting two of
the four break points that came their way to go one up in 33
minutes.
The second set was an intense affair with both the pairs
going neck-and-neck. Paes and Black did not find going easy
but they still managed to break their opponents once which
proved decisive in the end.
Another Indian in fray, Sania Mirza and her Canadian
partner Daniel Nestor will take on the American duo of Carly
Gullickson and Travis Parrott in the second round.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, September 06, 2009, 13:20