Paris: India’s Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna crashed out in the men’s doubles, but Sania Mirza and Swiss Martina Hingis entered the quarter-finals of the French Open here on Sunday.
Paes and Canadian Daniel Nestor, who were seeded 10th, lost to the sixth seed Italian pair of Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 2-6, 4-6.
Ninth seed Bopanna and Romanian Florin Mergea went down fighting 3-6, 7-6, 3-6 to fifth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands and Romanian Horia Tecau.
But top-seeded women’s doubles team Sania and Hingis ousted the 14th seeded Italian pair of Karin Knapp and Roberta Knapp 6-1, 6-4 in the third round.
The Indian-Swiss pair had full control of the match, giving away nothing to their Italian opponents.
Sania-Hingis won all three break points in the first set to seal it 6-1 in a one-sided affair.
In the second set, the Knapp duo looked to make a comeback but Sania and Hingis were too strong for them.
Paes and his Canadian partner looked sluggish right from the start. Four double faults in the first set hurt the duo as the Italian pair took full advantage.
Bolelli-Fognini won four of four break points in the set to clinch the set in style 6-2.
The 10th seeded pair repeated the same mistakes in the second set, giving away easy points to their opponents.
Two double faults and a couple of unforced errors made it too easy for Bolelli-Fognini to take the second set 6-4 and the match, to book a place in the quarter-finals.
Meanwhile, Bopanna-Mergea also started off badly, losing the first set 6-3.
But the Indian-Romanian pair came back strongly in the second. Bopanna-Mergea held their nerve to the end, taking full advantage of two double faults and three unforced errors made by their opponents, winning the set 7-6.
But Rojer-Tecau were the ones who would not give up. In the decider, the duo ensured they were in full flow to take the set 6-3.
