Bhupathi-Stepnak through to quarters in Australian Open

Melbourne, Jan 22 (UNI) Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepnak continued with their winning streak upsetting the seventh seeded Israeli pair of Jonathan Elrich and Andy Ram 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-3 to enter the quarterfinals of the men's doubles event at the Australian Open here today.

The Indo-Czech pair will now be up against the second seeded Swedish-Belarussian pair of Jonas Bjorkman and Max Mirnyi in the last eight.

In a battle lasting close to two hours, Bhupathi and Stepnak once again showed immense determination as they got the better of their seeded rivals.

Despite not being as disciplined as Elrich and Ram, who did not commit a single double fault or unforced error during the match, the Indo-Czech pair came out on top as they broke their rivals at crucial junctures and had a better first serve percentage.

The first set proved to be a see-saw battle and both the pairs broke each other once before stretching the opener to a tie-breaker.

Bhupathi and Stepnak seized the opportunity and won the tie-breaker to go one up.

Rattled by the setback, the seventh seeds made a comeback in the second set. Elrich and Ram served well and broke Bhupathi and Stepnak once as they equalised to take the match into what seemed to be an interesting third set.

However, it turned out to be a one-sided affair as Bhupathi and Stepnak raised their game and converted two of the three break points that came their way to seal the match in their favour.

Meanwhile, India's campaign at the junior events got off to a disappointing start as Rupesh Roy went down 6-2, 3-6, 3-6 to French Kevin Botti in the boys' singles event.

The Indian lost his way after winning the first set and was outplayed by his rival, who came back strongly to end Rupesh's campaign in the event.

UNI