Indian tennis aces Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes breezed into the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles event with their respective partners following straight set wins over their opponents in the US Open here.
Top seeds Bhupathi and his American partner Liezel Huber eased past Jill Craybas and Eric Butorac of USA 6-3 6-3 in a 54-minute second-round match to stay in the hunt.
They will next play either the Stephen Huss-Virginia Ruano Pascual pair or eighth seeds Nenad Zimonjic-Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
The second seeded combination of Leander Paes and Zimbabwe’s Cara Black saw off Italian Flavia Pennetta and Serb Dusan Vemic 6-4 6-4 in 74 minutes to set up a quarterfinal clash with seventh seeds Rennae Stubbs of Australia and Robert Lindstedt of Sweden.
Bhupathi and Huber were a bit sluggish with their service as they committed five double faults compared to their rivals’ one but the top seeds more than made up by converting breakpoints which came their way. They also defended six out of seven breakpoints in the process.
Even though Penneta and Venic managed to break them once in the first set, Paes and Black hit back, converting break points that came their way to go one up in 33 minutes.
The second set was an intense affair with both the pairs going neck-and-neck. Paes and Black did not find the going easy but they still managed to break their opponents which proved decisive in the end.
Another Indian in the fray, Sania Mirza and her Canadian partner Daniel Nestor will take on the American duo of Carly Gullickson and Travis Parrott in the second round.
