Aus Open: Paes and Sania advance

Sania Mirza and Leander Paes kept Indian hopes alive by scoring victories in their respective events but curtains were drawn on the campaign of Somdev Devvarman and Prakash Amritraj at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday.

Sania and her partner Virginia Ruano Pascual overcame an indifferent start to reach the pre-quarterfinals of the women's doubles event.

The 10th seeded Indo-Spanish pair overcame a fighting Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland and Italian Tathiana Garbin 7-6(3), 6-3 in their second round match at Melboune Park. They were trailing 1-4 in the opening set but soon found the touch and never looked back.

They will next take on the winners of the Melinda Czink and Natalie Grandin vs Alisa Kleybanova and Francesca Schiavone second round match.

Seasoned Paes and his American partner also had a tough first round as they scored a hard earned 7-5, 7-5 win over local wildcard entrants Sophie Ferguson and Carsten Ball.

Their next opponent will be winners of the Andrea Hlavackova and Lukasz Kubot vs Carly Gullickson and Bernard Tomic tie.