India had a fruitful day at the Australian Open as Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi stormed into the quarterfinals while top seeds Leander Paes and Zimbabwean Cara Black advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles in Melbourne on Sunday.
The unseeded Sania-Bhupathi pair thrashed the Australian duo of Anastasia Rodionova and Stephen Huss 6-1, 6-2 in 54 minutes.
They will next face winners of the match between the Canadian pair of Aleksandra Wozniak and Daniel Nestor and second seeded Chinese-Bahamian duo of Zi Yan and Mark Knowles.
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The top seeded Paes-Black pair overcame a stiff challenge from Serbian duo of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Nenad Zimonjic to carve out a 6-4, 4-6, 10-7 win in the first round.
Both the pairs broke each other thrice but Paes-Black, the winners of the US Open last year, eventually prevailed in the deciding super-tie breaker to move to the next level.
They will next face Patty Schnyder of Switzerland and Wesley Moodie of South Africa, who defeated the Russian-Brazilian combination of Alisa Kleybanova and Bruno Soares 6-3, 6-4 in their first round match.
Photographs and Text: Reuters
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