Melbourne

Fourth seeded Indo-Romanian team was fluent in their 6-3 6-2 win over Lukas Dlouhy and Jiri Vesely as they saved all the three break chances. They broke the Czech team thrice, racing to the win in just 59 minutes. 

Bopanna and Mergea next face next 14th seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi, who beat Brazilians Thomaz Bellucci and Marcelo Demoliner 5-7 7-6(2) 6-4. Bhupathi’s campaign ended with tame 3-6 2-6 defeat against American third seeds Bob and Mike Bryan. 

Bhupathi and his partner from Luxembourg could not earn a single break chance in the match which was over in 53 minutes. Bhupathi looked completely out of touch and the pair made 13 unforced errors, 10 more than their opponents, negating the fact that their total number of winners matched those of Bob and Mike. 

Bhupathi and Muller’s returns and shots were wayward, with the ball regularly hitting the net or going out of the field of play. Meanwhile, Leander Paes and Martina Hingis’ mixed doubles match against Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Dominic Inglot from Britain was cancelled due to rain.

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