Paes, Bhupathi advance in mixed doubles

London: Veterans Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, along with their respective partners, advanced to the third round of the Wimbledon mixed doubles event after notching up straight-set second-round wins.

Bhupathi and his Russian partner Elena Vesnina, seeded fourth, beat Australians Stephen Huss and Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 7-6 (3), while 14th seeds Paes and Zimbabwe's Cara Black got the better of the Dutch-Polish team of Rogier Wassen and Alicja Rosolska 6-1, 6-4.

But it was curtains for Somdev Devvarman in the men's doubles event after he and Japan's Kei Nishikori lost 3-6, 4-6, 6-7 (5) to the sixth seeded French-Serbian combine of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in the second round yesterday.

Bhupathi and Vesnina will now be facing an American-Belarussian combination of Eric Butorac and Olga Govortsova.

On the other hand, Paes and Black will be up against the winners of the second-round match between the third seeded Serbian-Slovak pair of Nenad Zimonjic and Katarina Srebotnik and local favourites Ross Hutchins and Heather Watson.

PTI