Paes-Vesnina ousted; Bhupathi-Petrova in QFs

Melbourne, Jan 22:
Second seeds Leander Paes and Elena Vesnina made a shock second round exit from the mixed doubles event of the Australian Open even as Mahesh Bhupathi and Nadia Petrova entered the quarter-finals, here today.
Paes and his Russian partner were outplayed by unseeded local pair of Matthew Ebden and Jarmila Gajdosova 3-6 2-6 in just 58 minutes.
Had Paes and Vesnina won, they could have clashed with fifth seeds Bhupathi and Petrova, who recorded a come-from-behind 3-6 6-2 10-5 win over Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, earlier in the day.
At the start, Paes and Vesnina immediately broke their rivals to open up a mini lead but the rivals broke back and it was soon 3-3.
With a crushing forehand winner on the serve of Gajdosova, Paes earned a breakpoint for the team in the seventh game but he faltered on a volley to squander it. (PTI)

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