Paes-Bhupathi canter into third round

Indian ace pair 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, in Melbourne on Saturday.

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

The 'Indian Express' duo successfully put 76 per cent of their first serves in and looked in really good shape as they managed to get the better of their opponents in little over an hour and a half.

Although, the Indian doubles specialists faced a stiff challenge from Monaco and Lopez in the first set, they brought into 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.