Wimbledon: Paes-Hingis advance as Bopanna crashes out in mixed doubles

London, UK: Leander Paes and Martina Hingis eased into the mixed doubles pre-quarterfinals of the Wimbledon championships but it was curtains for Rohan Bopanna and his Spanish partner Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. Seventh seeds Paes and Hingis subdued the French pair of Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Alize Cornet 6-4 6-2 in the second round match, late on Saturday. [caption id=“attachment_2063431” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Leander Paes and Martina Hingis. Getty[/caption] They are now up against Artem Sitak of New Zealand and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia. Bopanna and his Spanish partner suffered a tame 2-6 4-6 defeat against sixth seeded pair of Horia Tecau from Romania and Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik in their second round. It was double delight for Indian fans at the Wimbledon earlier on Saturday as Paes moved into the pre-quarterfinals with partner Daniel Nestor and Sania Mirza also entered Round 3 in the mixed doubles event. Paes and Nestor had to dig deep into their reserves to prevail over Yen-Hsun Lu and Teymuraz Gabashvili in a marathon men’s doubles second-round match. The 11th seeded Indo-Canadian pair were pushed by the Taipei-Russian combination before managing a 5-7 7-6 (3) 7-6 (4) 7-5 victory. In the mixed doubles draw, the second-seeded pair of Sania and Soares made short work of Janette Husarova and Andre Begemann 6-2, 6-4 in the second round encounter. The Indo-Brazil combine got past the Slovak-German pair in 61 minutes to move into the last-16. The men’s doubles match was a three-hour 15 minute affair with both pairs trading breaks only twice as high quality tennis was on display. Paes and Nestor won 160 points, only 11 more than their worthy rivals. Paes and Nestor saved two break chances in the second set and that proved decisive in the outcome of the match as they managed to break rivals one time in three chances. On Monday, three Indian players will try to make the quarterfinal grade. For a place in the quarterfinals, they will now fight it out with the eighth seeded team of Alexander Peya from Austria and Bruno Soares from Brazil. Top seeds Sania and Hingis will take on 16th seeds Spanish team of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja in the women’s doubles third round. Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, seeded ninth, face Poland’s Lukasz Kubot and Belarussian Max Mirnyi. In the boys singles, Sumit Nagal will open his campaign against Juan Pablo Ficovich from Argentina. PTI