India’s evergreen tennis ace Leander Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis overcame a tough challenge to move into the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles competition at the 2016 French Open in Paris on Saturday. The unseeded duo edged past the fourth-seeded Kazakh-Romanian combine of Yaroslava Shvedova and Florin Mergea, 2-6, 7-5, 10-6.
Meanwhile, Rohan Bopanna and Alla Kudryavtseva entered the second round without touching the racquet as their opponents Nicolas Mahut and Tatjana Maria gave a walkover.
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Tough match for Paes and Hingis
The three-time Major winners Paes and Hingis had a rough start to their match as they got broken to trail behind 2-3 before their match got interrupted by rain. However, fortunes did not change on return as they lost the next three games to concede the first set 2-6.
The second set turned out to be a far more competitive affair as the two teams held serve till 5-5. The experienced duo then clinched the all-important break to grab the set 7-5 and send the match into a deciding tie-break.
The match tie-break went mostly the way of Paes and Hingis since they edged ahead 4-3 after securing a mini-break. Brimming with confidence, they surged to a 6-3 and then a 9-6 lead that presented them with three match points. They did not take much time to convert one of them for a place in the quarter-finals.
