It was known that doubles would be India's saviour in the French Open. How true the saying has proved. First up, the Indo-Pak Express - Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi - thrashed their opponents to make the men's doubles quarters. Then, Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina shocked the top seeds to storm into the semifinals of the women's doubles on Monday afternoon.
Bopanna and Qureshi, seeded fifth here, seemed to be on a song as they beat Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-3, 7-5. Now, they have a tough battle on their hands as they've set up a semifinal date against the top-seeded American duo, twins Bob and Mike Bryan.
It was all smiles for Sania and Vesnina. Playing on Court One, the seventh seeds needed only 66 minutes to thrash Argentine Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-0, 7-5.
However, it was the end of the road for Leander Paes and Iveta Benesova as they crashed out of the mixed doubles. They lost to the top-seeded duo of Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic 6-7(3), 3-6.
The Chinese march
Sixth seed Li Na became the first Chinese player to reach the French Open quarter-finals on Monday with a disjointed 2-6, 6-1, 6-3 defeat of 21-year-old Czech ninth seed Petra Kvitova.
A beaten finalist at the Australian Open earlier this year, Li will play either fourth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus for a place in the last four.
{{/usCountry}}A beaten finalist at the Australian Open earlier this year, Li will play either fourth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus for a place in the last four.
{{/usCountry}}Li was broken in the third game of the opening set when she sent a backhand beyond the baseline and Kvitova then saw off four break points on her own serve to open up a 4-2 advantage. The Chinese player's erratic groundstrokes prevented her from capitalising on the succession of break point opportunities she procured, and when she double-faulted to gift Kvitova a 5-2 lead, the first set was all but over.