Paes in quarters of men's, mixed doubles

Leander Paes enjoyed an all-win outing to enter the quarter-finals of the men's and mixed doubles at the US Open. However, it was a mixed day for Sania Mirza in the season's last Grand Slam in New York.

Paes and his Czech men's doubles partner Radek Stepanek sailed into the last-eight stage. The fifth seeds defeated the American-Australian combination of the Jesse Levine and Marinko Matosevic 6-1, 6-3.

Paes-Stepanekwill now face the third seeded Swedish-Romanian pair of Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau.

The Indian veteran then went on to register a hard-fought three-set win in the mixed doubles' third round with Russian partner Elena Vesnina. The third-seeded Indo-Russian team rallied to beat unseeded Americans Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky 4-6, 6-4, 1-0 (5).

Paes-Vesnina will face seventh seeded Czechs Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak.

Sania too won her her mixed doubles third round match with Brit partner Colin Fleming, who she teamed with after ending a successful alliance with Mahesh Bhupathi before the event.

Sania-Colin got the better of Americans Melanie Oudin and Jack Sock 6-4, 7-6 (7) to enter the quarters, where they will be up against the fourth-seeded Czech-Polish pair of Kveta Peschke and Marcin Matkowski.

But Sania's women's doubles campaign ended when the Indian and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands lost to second-seeded Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci. The 13th seeds lost 4-6, 7-6 (7), 3-6.

Meanwhile, Mahesh Bhupathi's challenge in the event came to an end when the veteran and his Czech partner Andrea Hlavackova, seeded sixth, gave a walkover to Spaniards Nuria Llagostera Vives and David Marrero in the mixed doubles second round.

Bhupathi had earlier bowed out of the men's doubles in which he teamed with compatriot Rohan Bopanna.

Image: Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek in action against Jesse Levine and Marinko Matos.

Photograph: Jay Mandal