Home > Sports > Tennis >
PTI >
Report
Bhupathi-Mirnyi reach last eight
May 30, 2004 19:59 IST
Third seeds Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi of Belarus thrashed Croatian pair of Mario Ancic and Ivan Ljubicic in straight sets to storm into the quarter-finals of the French Open doubles event on Sunday.
The Indo-Belarussian pair faced no resistance from the unseeded pair and romped home 6-2, 6-2 to set a quarter-final clash with Karsten Braasch of Germany and Sargis Sargsian of Armenia.
| Also Read | | |
|
The country's juniors also made a promising start to their campaign with top Indian player Karan Rastogi and Tushar Liberhan moving into the second round of the boys event.12th seed, Rastogi, overcame a slight lapse in concentration to beat local hope Jonathan Dasnieres 6-3, 6-7 (1/7), 6-3 while Liberhan defeated Jamie Murray of Great Britain 6-2, 4-6, 6-4.
Rastogi will now face Martin Fischer of Austria while Liberhan will take on the winner of the match between 10th seed Woong-Soon Jun of Korea and Donald Young of USA.
But Divij Sharan lost to Briton Miles Kasiri 6-1, 6-2 in the boys' singles first round match.
Bhupathi, however, bowed out of the mixed doubles event. Bhupathi and Russia's Elena Likhovtseva, the top seeds, were knocked out by Els Callens of Belgium and Argentine Sebastian Prieto 7-5, 6-3.
Meanwhile, Leander Paes advanced to the second round of the mixed doubles with Martina Navratilova but crashed out of the men's doubles with Czech Republic partner David Rikl.
Paes and American legend Navratilova, sixth seeds, breezed past Spaniard Magui Serna and Martin Rodgriguez of Argentina 6-3, 6-2 into the second round.
But Paes, who won the men's doubles title at Roland Garros twice with Bhupathi in 1999 and 2001, and Rikl were overwhelmed by Argentine duo Juan Ignacio Chela and Gaston Gaudo 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.