Bopanna-Mergea enter pre-quarters; Bhupathi and partner ousted

India's Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea battled past Thomas Bellucci and Guillermo Duran in straight sets to progress to the pre-quarterfinals of the Wimbledon men's doubles event, here today.

London: India's Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea battled past Thomas Bellucci and Guillermo Duran in straight sets to enter the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals but it was curtains for the mixed doubles duo of Mahesh Bhupathi and Alla Kudryavtseva at the Wimbledon here on Friday.

In a closely fought second round contest, the ninth seeded Indo-Romanian pair prevailed 7-5 7-6(5) 7-6 (5) against the Brazil-Argentine combination after fighting hard for two hours and 10 minutes.

However, the duo of Bhupathi and Kudryavtseva lost to American pair of Nicholas Monroe and Madison Brengle 7-5 6-3 6-2 in a match that lasted one hour, 40 minutes on court number seven.

Earlier in the day, saving six of the seven breakpoints proved crucial for Bopanna and Mergea. They broke their rivals twice in each of the first two sets, out of all total five chances that they earned in the contest.

Bopanna will open his mixed doubles campaign later in the day with Spanish partner Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. They are up against American Eric Butorac and his Hungarian partner Katalin Marosi.

Mahesh Bhuapthi will also play his mixed doubles first round today. Partnering Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva, he will take on the American pair of Nicholas Monroe and Madison Brengle.

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis are scheduled to play their women's doubles second round against Japan's Kimiko Date-Krumm and Italy's Francesca Schiavone.