Paris, May 29 (IANS) Defending champions Leander Paes of India and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic advanced to the third round while Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus crashed out of the second round of the men’s doubles in the French Open here Saturday.
Also to advance in the men’s doubles were the unseeded pair of India’s Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan’s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi who breezed past Fabio Fognini of Italy and American Michael Russell 6-2 6-3 in the first round. They will now be challenged by 15th-seeded Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra.
The third-seeded pair of Paes and Dlouhy were stretched to three sets by Swiss Yves Allegro and Germany’s Andreas Beck before winning 6-4, 3-6, 6-3. They next play the winner of the second round match between Serbian pair Viktor Troicki and Dusan Vemic and Mexico’s Santiago Gonzalez and American Travis RettenMayer.
Fifth seeds Bhupathi and Mirnyi went down to Spaniards Marc Lopez and Pere Riba 6-4, 7-6(4).
