Paes-Bhupathi in Third Round Of Australian Open

Melbourne: Indian tennis duo of Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi registered a straight-set victory over Argentina`s Juan Monaco and Feliciano Lopez of Spain 7-6 (2) 6-4 to advance to the third round of the Australian Open men`s doubles event, here on Saturday.

Paes and Bhupathi, who rallied from one set down to beat Ivo Karlovic and Dusan Vemica in their first-round match here a couple of days back, came up with a much-improved performance today.

The "Indian Express" duo could successfully put 76 percent of their first serves in and looked in really good shape as they managed to get the better of their opponents in little over one and a half hours.

Although, the Indian doubles specialists faced a stiff challenge from Monaco and Lopez in the first set the pair of Lee-Hesh brought to the fore all their experiences to finally prevail over them with a tight 7-6 win.

In the second set, however, the third-seeded Indians did not have much trouble as the two comfortably outplayed their unseeded Spanish-Argentine pair to steal the set 6-4 and put themselves on course for their maiden Australian Open title.

Paes and Bhupathi will next face the Spanish duo of Tommy Robredo and Marcel Granollers in the third round.