Mixed day for Indians at Paris; Bhupathi,Sania progress,Paes bow out

Paris, June 2 (UNI) The Indian players enjoyed mixed fortunes at the French Open as Leander Paes and Martin Damm were shocked by an unseeded pair, while his estranged partner Mahesh Bhupathi and Radek Stepanek stormed into the third round of the French Open here.

After the double disappointment in singles and doubles, Sania Mirza saved herself the blushes as she and Frenchman Fabrice Santoro trounced American-Czech pair of Vania King (USA) and Frantisek Ceramak 6-2, 6-0, to progress into the pre-quarterfinals Mixed doubles.

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.

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 a 6-1 win in the first set and carried the momentum through to the second round.

Leander Paes and Martin Damm's scratchy performance at the Roland Garros came to a premature halt as the seasoned pair were stunned by unseeded German duo of Michael Kohl mann and Rainer Schuettler to crash out in the doubles second round.

After an ordinary first round win, the third seeded Indo-Czech pair lost 3-6 6-1 3-6 against their lower-ranked rivals.

Paes and Damm flattered to deceive as they won the second set 6-1 but but could not sustain the momentum when it mattered most as their rivals held their nerves to win the third set and the match to book a third round berth.

Even after converting two break points out of five compared to their rivals' two out of eight, Paes and Damm had to pay dearly for committing more unforced errors. The Indo-Czech pair won 69 per cent of their first serves to the rivals' 74 per cent.

Earlier in the day, Sania and Santoro were hardly made to sweat as they won first set after converting both the breakpoints that came thier way and did not drop a single game in the second set to seal the match in just 46 minutes.

Sania-Santoro now take on sixth seeded Serb-Slovenian combine of Nenad Zimonjic and Katarina Srebotnik who overpowered Canadian Daniel Nestor and Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-2, 5-7, 10-7 in the first round.

UNI