Bhupathi-Pierce sail through to last eight

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mary Pierce of France beat Martin Garcia of Argentina and Mara Santangelo of Italy to enter the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the Wimbledon tennis championships here Wednesday.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Mary Pierce of France beat Martin Garcia of Argentina and Mara Santangelo of Italy to enter the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the Wimbledon tennis championships here Wednesday.

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The unseeded Indian-French pair won 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Bhupathi and Pierce will potentially have a tough encounter in the quarters as they will take on the winner of a match between eighth seeds Mark Knowles of Bahrain and Venus Williams of the US and the 12th seeded Belgian pair of Olivier Rochus and Kim Clijsters.

Elsewhere, fifth seeds Leander Paes and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia-Montenegro lost their men's doubles quarterfinals to the fourth seeded Zimbabwean pair of Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett in a tight three setter.

The Zimbabwean pair won in straight sets 7-5, 7-6 (10-8), 7-6 (10-8)