The ‘ Indian Express’, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati advanced into the second round of the Men’s Doubles event at the ongoing French Open. The two time French-Open champions, albeit not so convincingly, beat the all German Haas-Petzschner pair 2-6 6-3 6-2 in just over 90 minutes. The Indo-Pak combination of Rohan Bopanna and Aisan Qureshi were much more convincing as they thrashed their Italian opponents Seppi and Vagnozi 6-3 6-2. The India-Pakistan pair now plays Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina and Kei Nishikori of Japan.
The third-seeded Indians were completely off-colour in the first set as they could get just 33 percent of their second serve right as compared to German pair’s 60 per cent.While the experienced Indian pair committed two double faults, Haas-Petzschner did not make a single mistake, instead they managed to convert both their break points to win the set comfortably 6-2. However, Paes and Bhupathi showed their experience and came back strongly to take the next two sets 6-3, 6-2. The 1999 and 2001 champions will meet Australian duo of Ashley Fisher and Stephen Huss in the second round.
Somdev, who is already out of the singles first round, partnering Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei went down to Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Feliciano Lopez 3-6, 4-6. Sania Mirza also had a terrible day as she was knocked out of both singles and mixed doubles event where she was partnering Rohan Bopanna.