Paes, Bhupathi face-off in Sydney

India's Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi shrugged off their numbing defeats in the Chennai Open to post convincing victories and set up a quarter-final clash at the USD 419,000 ATP Tour tennis event in Sydney, Australia, on Wednesday.

Bhupathi saw his dream pairing with Australia's Todd Woodbridge, who holds a record 16 Grand Slam titles, get off to a winning start as they defeated America's Mardy Fish and Brian Macphie 6-2, 6-3 in the first round.

Paes and Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic, rebounded from a first set deficit to post a 1-6, 6-4, 6-3 win over Spaniards Feliciano Lopez and Fernando Verdasco.

Paes and Bhupathi, the former world number one pair, will stand on the opposite sides of the net in the quarter-final to be played on Thursday.

The Sydney hard court event is a lead up to the Australian Open Grand Slam beginning at Melbourne on Monday.

Bhupathi and Woodbridge are seeded third behind Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Daniel Nestor of Canada and the American Bryan brothers, Bob and Mike. Paes and Zimonjic are unseeded.

Paes and Bhupathi, playing with different partners, lost in front of the home crowd last week in Chennai.

Paes and Zimonjic were ousted in the semi-finals, while Bhupathi and Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman were upset in the final.