Bhupathi-Sania in quarters of French Open

Paris: Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza advanced to the quarter-finals of the French Open mixed doubles event after notching up a straight-set victory in the second round of the grand slam event on Sunday.

The seventh seed Indian pair defeated their unseeded opponents from France, Virginie Razzano and Nicolas Devilder, 7-6 6-3 in a contest lasting an hour and 20 minutes. They will now be facing the winner of the match between second seed Czech Republic-USA pair of Kveta Peschke/Mike Bryan and unseeded USA-Romanian duo of Bethanie Mattek Sands/Horia Tecau. The Indian pair had to toil hard as the first set went into a tie-break. However, the French pair ran out of steam in the second set. Earlier, Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina made a smooth progress to the mixed doubles quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-0 drubbing of Mathilde Johansson and Marc Gicquel. The fifth seed Indo-Russian pair needed just 49 minutes to dispatch the local pair in the second round of the clay court tournament. Paes and Vesnina broke their rivals twice in the opening set and thrice in the second to seal the win. They never faced a breakpoint in the whole match. Paes and Vesnina will now face the winner of the other second round match between top seeded pair of Liezel Huber/Max Mirnyi and Alicja Rosolska/Alexander Peya. PTI