Paes, Bhupathi advance in mixed doubles

The crack Indian doubles pair shrugged off their first round loss in the men's doubles with first round wins in the mixed doubles event at Wimbledon on Saturday.

First, Leander Paes with Lisa Raymond defeated Marius Barnard(SA) and Caroline Vis(HOL) 6-2, 6-1 to enter the second round and later Mahesh Bhupathi partnering Elena Likhovtseva got past Scott Humphries (US) and Anne-Gaelle Sidot(FRA) 6-4, 6-4.

It was an easy outing for the sixth seeded pair of Paes and Raymond. The match proceeded without much drama till Barnard's serve in the sixth game when Paes/Raymond scored four straight points for a quick break to go up 4-2. Raymond ,then held her serve Barnard/Vis providing some resistence .She managed to hold it after going to deuce. In the eight game Paes/Raymond converted the first break-point oppurtunity to take the set at 6-2.

In the second set, the Indo-American pair got their first break in the fourth game off Barnard's serve. They got another break in the sixth game, off Vis' serve to go up 5-1. Paes served out the next game to take the match.

The match saw complete domination by the 6th seeds who required just 44 minutes to win.

Paes and Raymond scored 56 points and served 5 aces as compared to 44 points and one ace by Barnard and Vis.

Paes and Raymond will face Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Martina Navratilova of The United States in the second round. Mirnyi and Navratilova defeated the American pair of Mitch Sprengelmeyer and Lilia Osterloh 6-4, 7-5 in the first round.

Fourth seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Likhovtseva started the match with a break in the second game on Humphries' serve to go up 2-0. The games went with serve till the end of the set when Mahesh served it off after a couple of deuces to take it at 6-4.

In the second set games went with serve upto the sixth game. In game seven, Bhupathi and Likhovtseva had a break chance, but they could not capitalize on it. Elena served the next game out at love to make it 4-4.

In the ninth game Bhupathi and Likhovtseva had a triple breakpoint oppurtunity, but they failed to convert them and it was deuce. At AD out they had their next chance which they finally converted to lead at 5-4. Humphries and Sidot did not allow Bhupathi to have an easy game while he was serving for the set and the match. They had him down at 0-30. Bhupathi, then fought back and had a match point at 40-30, but was taken to deuce. The Indian finished it off without any further problems winning the next two points.

Mahesh and Likhovtseva will face Andrew Kratzmann of Australia and Magui Serna of Spain in the second round. Kratzmann and Serna defeated Andrew Florent of Australia and Anke Huber of Germany 7-6(7-2), 2-6, 6-2.