Australian Open winners Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek saw off stiff resistance from Juan Monaco and Kei Nishikori to advance to the quarter-finals of the ATP Indian Wells Masters.

The seventh-seeded Indo-Czech pair beat their unseeded opponents 7-6(5), 6-4 in a second round match.

They will now fight it out with the giant-killing Spanish pair of Marc Lopez and Rafael Nadal for a place in the last four stage.

Lopez and Nadal knocked out third seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in their opening round.

The Indian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna suffered a first round exit in the US $4,694,969 hard court event.

They lost to the French pair of Julien Benneteau and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Meanwhile, Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina moved into the quarter-finals of the WTA Indian Wells tournament with a hard-fought win over Timea Bacsinszky and Alberta Brianti in California.

The second seeded Indo-Russian pair dominated the proceedings in the beginning but lost the second set before winning the second round match 6-1, 3-6, 10-2.

They face Argentine pair of Gisela Dulko and Paola Suarez in the last-eight stage match.

Sania had exited the singles event after losing her second round match to Anabel Medina Garrigues.