London Olympics Tennis: Paes/Sania advance to the quarter-finals

Indian mixed doubles pair of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza begin their campaign in the London Olympics 2012 against Nenad Zimonjic and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.

London: Leander Paes and Sania Mirza defeated Serbian pair of Nenad Zimonjic and Ana Ivanovic in staright sets to enter the mixed doubles quarter-final of the Olympic Games, here on Thursday.

SET 2: PAES/SANIA 6 : 4 ZIMONIC/IVANOVIC SET 1: PAES/SANIA 6 : 2 ZIMONIC/IVANOVIC Paes-Sania beat the Serbian pair 6-2 6-4 in only 64 minutes to set up a last eight clash with top seeds Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus. The Indian pair dominated the proceedings from the start as they first broke opponent's serve in the third game but the Serbians broke back to get scores levelled at 2-2. However both Zimonjic and Ivanovic's serve was broken once each in the fifth and seventh game of the first set respectively before the winners closed out the set at 6-2. The first set was played for merely 26 minutes. Paes-Mirza got an all-important break in the very first game of the second set and then held their serves to win the match in the 10th game. Paes was as usual amazing at the net with timely anticipations but credit should also be given to Sania for hitting some fantastic winners including a few booming forehand returns and some lovely down the line shots. PTI