London, June 30 (Inditop.com) It was Leander Paes who won the much hyped battle against his estranged doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi in the Wimbledon mixed doubles.
Paes partnering Cara Black of Zimbabwe defeated Bhupathi and Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-7 (2) 6-3 to move into the quarter-final Monday night.
Top seeded Paes and Black with a double break pocketed the first set for a 1-0 lead.
The second set went on serve till the tie-break where Bhupathi and Sania prevailed to draw parity.
The US Open mixed doubles champions broke Bhupathi and Mirza twice in the third set to close the match in just over two hours.
The loss spelt the end of Sania’s challenge in Wimbledon this year. The 22-year-old Hyderabadi had bowed out of the second round of both singles and doubles event.
In the men’s doubles, Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas beat India’s Prakash Amritraj and Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 6-4, 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-0 to move into the quarter-finals of men’s doubles.
In the boy’s singles first round, India’s Sudarwa Sitaram beat Egyptian Karim-Mohamed Maamoun 6-3, 4-6, 6-2. He now plays 2008 junior Australian Open champion Bernard Tomic.
rounak