Paes-Dlouhy in pre-quarters of Australian Open

Leander Paes remained on course for his second successive Grand Slam title after reaching the men's doubles pre-quarterfinals of the Australian Open with partner Lukas Dlouhy in Melbourne on Saturday.

The third seeded Indo-Czech pair quelled the challenge of Lucas Arnold of Argentina and Romanian Horia Tecau 7-5, 6-3 in the second round at Melbourne Park.

They will now fight it out with Americans John Isner and Sam Querrey, who got the better of French Julien Benneteau and Steve Darcis of Belgium 6-4, 6-0 in their second round.

Paes had won the US Open in October last year along with Dlouhy after defeating compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles.

Paes is the lone Indian survivor in the men's doubles as the pairs of Somdev Devvarman-Prakash Amritraj, Bhupathi-Max Mairnyi and Rohan Bopanna-Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi have already lost in the early stages.

Bhupathi's calf muscle injury played a part in his shock first round exit and also forced him to pull out of the mixed doubles event along with Sania Mirza.

Sania and her Spanish partner Virginia Ruano Pascual, seeded 10th, will take on seventh seeds Alisa Kleybanova and Italian Francesca Schiavone in the women's doubles third round on Sunday.

In the junior event, Indian qualifier Rishika Sunkara will open her campaign against Japanese Miyu Kato in the girls event while Vaidik Munshaw will take on 13th seed Belgian Arthur De Greef.