Leander Paes moved into the mixed doubles quarter-finals
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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.
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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.
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About the author
Sudeshna Banerjee
Sudeshna is a veteran Indian Sports and International Tennis journalist as well as editor at Sportskeeda. She has an overall experience of over 10 years with top publications like The Bridge, Fox Sports Asia, and gained a keen interest in Indian sports since the 2002 Commonwealth and Asian Games when she was in school.
Sudeshna holds a Master's degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She attends tournaments regularly and being a highly experienced journalist, she ensures she only contacts the correct people from her network for the most authentic information to be put in her articles.
Sudeshna’s favorite Indian athlete is PV Sindhu owing to her big-tournament performances. She also admires Tennis legend Rafael Nadal for his resilience and has witnessed the Spaniard in action at the French Open, due to which, Roland Garros is her all-time favorite Grand Slam tournament.
Neeraj Chopra’s gold medal win at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics made a lasting impact on Sudeshna. She has also interviewed him along with Badminton star Chirag Shetty and several other sports personalities. She has done on-ground reporting on multiple ITF tournaments along with the Premier Badminton League, Asian Boxing Championships and the Davis Cup.
When not using her skills and years of experience in crafting compelling content, Sudeshna likes to read, watch movies and travel.
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