Paes reaches quarterfinals with 108th partner

Leander Paes joined hands with Germany's Andre Begemann, his 108th partner on the ATP circuit, to enter the quarterfinals of the Winston-Salem Open with a straight set win over Chris Guccione and Andre Sa, in Winston-Salemm, USA.

The unseeded Indo-German pair won 6-4 6-4 against the Australian-Brazilian combination in the opening round of the USD 720,940 ATP 250 event.

It took 43-year-old Paes and Begemann only 65 minutes to seal the contest in which they saved five of the six breakpoints and broke their rivals thrice.

Paes and the German ended up winning 58 points, nine more than their opponents in the match.

They next run into top seeds, Poland's Lukasz Kubot and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic, who struggled past fighting Americans Nicholas Monroe and Donald Young 2-6 7-6(5) 10-7.

It is the last tournament in run up to the US Open, the last Grand Slam of the season.