Bopanna-Qureshi reach 3rd round, Sania-Elena win in Paris

India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi fought their way to the third round of French Open men's doubles after disposing off Argentine Maximo Gonzalez and Kei Nishikori of Japan in a thrilling three-setter here on Friday.

India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi fought their way to the third round of French Open men's doubles after disposing off Argentine Maximo Gonzalez and Kei Nishikori of Japan in a thrilling three-setter here today.

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The fifth seeded Indo-Pak pair rallied from a set down to see off Maximo and Nishikori 6-7 (4) 6-3 6-4 in a two-hour and 17 minutes second round clash.

Bopanna and Qureshi will be up against Andrey Golubev of Kazakisthan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the next round.

However, Bopanna could not create the same magic in the mixed doubles category and became a first round casualty along with Sania Mirza.

The Indian pair lost 6-7 (4) 6-7 (2) to Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei and Marcin Matkowski of Poland in a hard-fought first-round showdown.

In the women's doubles event, Sania combined with Russian Elena Vesnina to dismiss the challenge from German-Sweden combo of Kristina Barrois and Johanna Larsson 7-6 (4) 6-3 in a second round match that lasted for one hour and 42 minutes.

The seventh seeds will now take on 11th seeds Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and A Medina Garrigues of Spain in the second round.