Paris: Sania Mirza’s entry into the mixed doubles quarterfinals was the only silver lining for India as both Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna lost their respective last eight encounters in the men’s doubles at the French Open here on Wednesday.
Second seeded Sania and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig beat French pair of Alize Cornet and Jonathan Eysseric 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 10-8 in a closely-fought second round match.
In the men’s doubles, India’s challenge ended as Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, seeded sixth, went down ,4-6 4-6 to third seeds Dodig and Marcelo Melo of Brazil.
The 16th-seeded Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski also lost in straight sets to fifth seeded formidable American pair of Mike and Bob Bryan 6-7 (14), 3-6.
The only cheer for the Indians was Sania’s performance with his Croatian partner Dodig. The second seeds will now meet Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei and veteran Max Mirnyi of Belarus in the quarterfinals. Leander and Martina Hingis are also in the mixed doubles quarterfinals and are pitted against fifth seeds Bruno Soares and Elena Vesnina.
The second round encounter was a closely fought one as both teams lost their service games twice but the French pair did well to clinch the first set via tie-breaker.
In the second set, Sania and Dodig were a break up but the local pair came back strongly. It was the experience of Mirza-Dodig that helped them clinch a second break point in the ninth game and then close the set at 6-4. The super tie-break was also an exciting affair but the second seeds used their oodles of experience to prevail.
