Good outing for Indians as Sania, Paes, advance in doubles

Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina overcame a fighting Eva Birnerova and Alberta Brianti 7-5, 7-5 to advance to the women's doubles pre-quarterfinals as India recorded its second straight win on the day at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Saturday.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Russian pair saved 13 breakpoints out of 16 faced against the Czech-Italian combo in the second round clash, which lasted close to two hours on court No 6.

The duo will now fight it out with Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands for a place in the quarter-finals.

First-time partners Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna progressed to the men's doubles pre-quarter-finals as the fourth seeded India pair scored an easy 6-2, 6-2 win over Australia's Carsten Ball and Treat Conrad Huey of Philippines.

They now face 13th seed Americans Scott Lipsky and Rajeev Ram.

Leander Paes also had a good day in office as he and Vesnina won their opening mixed doubles clash in straight sets against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia and Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

The fifth-seed Indo Russian pair overcame a late charge from the rivals to score a 6-2, 7-5 win.

They await the winners of another first round match between Nadia Petrova/Marcelo Melo and Su-Wei Hsieh/Marcin Matkowski.