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| Bhupathi-Stepanek on fire, 'mixed' luck for Paes | | |
MELBOURNE, JAN 21
Mahesh Bhupathi's new partnership with Radek Stepanek seemed to get into groove as the duo came through an intense battle to move into the third round of the men's doubles at the Australian Open here today.
Bhupathi and Czech Republic's Stepanek, engaged to 'Swiss Miss' Martina Hingis, shocked the ninth seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner of Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
Bhupathi's compatriot Leander Paes, however, had 'mixed' luck on the courts.
Paes bit the dust in the men's doubles with Martin Damm but won his opening encounter in the mixed doubles with Samantha Stosur.
Paes and Damm lost their third round match to Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut of France 5-7 6-7 (9) in a two-hour long battle.
The Indian star then joined hands with Stosur to defeat Switzerland's Yves Allegro and Russian Elena Bovina 6-2 6-2 to moved into the second round of mixed doubles.
The Indo-Australian pair, seeded third, next face South African Chris Haggard and Greece's Elini Daniilidou who beat Czech Republic's Leos Friedl and Frenchwoman Tathiana Garbin 6-3 6-1.
Paes and Stosur were never really troubled as they served well and won 87 per cent and 73 per cent of the points on the first and second deliveries respectively.
They also converted all four break points they got without giving their opponents any such opportunity.
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