Paes, Stepanek in Indian Wells pre-quarterfinals

Indian Wells (USA): Fourth seeds Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek fought their way into the pre-quarterfinals of the ATP Indian Wells Masters tournament after a tough first round win over unseeded Jerzy Janowicz and Philipp Kohlschreiber, here.

The Indo-Czech pair needed a Super Tie Breaker to beat the Polish-German team 7-6(6) 3-6 10-5 in one hour and 38 minutes in their opening round of the USD 5,240,015 hard court event. They next face wild card pair of Jonathan Erlich from Israel and Richard Gasquet from France. Paes is the only Indian left in the men`s tournament after Rohan Bopanna`s defeat in the doubles along with his partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi. They had to lost to Swiss stars Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka. Somdev Devvarman could not make the singles main draw after shock first round defeat in the Qualifiers.