Paes-Vesnina in Wimbledon mixed doubles quarters

London: India's Leander Paes and his Russian partner Elena Vesnina beat the formidable Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka for a place in the mixed doubles quarter-finals at the Wimbledon Tennis Championships here.

The fourth seeds got the better of the Belarusian duo 7-6, 6-3 in a third round match Thursday evening. They next meet Australia's Paul Hanley and Russian Alla Kudryavtseva Friday.

Paes-Vesnina reaped the benefit of serving well in a tight match lasting an hour and 32 minutes. They put 80 percent of their first serves in to 66 by Mirnyi and Azarenka.

The Indo-Russian combine converted one of the four break points while their opponents failed to convert one in seven attempts.

The first set could have gone either way until Paes-Vesnina clinched it, winning 7-3 in the tie-break. The lone break of serve in the second helped them get over the line.

Earlier Thursday, India's Rohan Bopanna and his Chinese partner Jie Zheng lost their quarter-final match.

Bopanna and Jie, who were seeded 10th, went down 2-6, 5-7 to the second seeded American pair of Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond.

IANS