London: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna scored contrasting victories to make it to the quarter-finals at Wimbledon with their respective partners but Leander Paes’ campaign ended following defeat in a thrilling five-setter here on Monday.
Top seeds Sania and Swiss legend Martina Hingis downed 16th seeded Spanards Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-4, 6-3 in just 66 minutes. In the men’s doubles, it was a tough day for Bopanna and Paes as they had to battle hard at the grass court Grand Slam.
The ninth seeded Indo-Romanian pair of Bopanna and Florin Mergea faced stiff resistance from Lukasz Kubot from Poland and Max Mirnyi from Belarus before prevailing 7-6 (4), 6-7 (5), 7-5 (5), 7-6 (8) in a marathon third round, that lasted three hours and 19 minutes.
Paes and Daniel Nestor, seeded 11th, came back from two sets down but lost 3-6, 5-7, 6-3, 6-2, 2-6 to Austria’s Alexander Peya and Brazilian Bruno Soares.
