Montreal: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi defeated Australia's Paul Hanley and Bruno Soares of Brazil in straight sets to advance to the third round of the men's doubles event of the Rogers Cup tennis tournament here.
The fifth-seeded 'Indo-Pak Express' duo, who got a bye in the first round, registered 6-4 7-6(6) victory over their opponents in a closely fought contest.
Although there was little to differentiate between the two sides, Bopanna and Qureshi managed to capitalise on one break point they got in the first set which they won 6-4.
The second set, however, went to a tie-breaker which the Indo-Pak pair won 7-6(6).
Bopanna-Qureshi will next play the winners of the match between top seed Americans Bob and Mike Bryan and Spanish duo of Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco.
However, it was end of the road for India's Sania Mirza who with her Russian partner Elena Vesnina crashed out of the women's doubles first round. The fifth-seeded Indo-Russian pair were shocked 6-2, 0-6, 7-10 by Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.
Sania had failed to make the main draw of the singles event losing in the final qualifying round.
Bureau Report
First Published: Thursday, August 11, 2011, 16:30