Bhupathi-Stepanek storms into third round at French Open

Paris, June 2 (UNI) Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek came up with another straight-sets victory as they won 6-1 6-3 to storm into the third round of the doubles competition at the French Open here.

It took only 51 minutes for the unseeded Indo-Czech combine to trounce Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Filippo Volandri of Italy.

Bhupathi and Stepanek did not let their opponents settle down throughout the match as they raced to 6-1 win in the first set and carried the momentum through to the second round.

The Indo-czech won an impressive 86 per cent of the first serves compared to thier rivals' 48 per cent and converted four out of the nine break points while Guillermo and Volandri got no opportunity to break the more seasoned pros.

In the first match, the Indo-Czech pair eased passed the 12th seeded Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-4 6-0 in just over an hour at the Roland Garros yesterday.

With Leander Paes and Sania Mirza, both knocked off from the Doubles competition, Bhupathi, whose name has been recommended for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, remains the lone Indian in fray in the doubles section.

UNI