Melburne, January 23: Indian hopes are alive in Australian open as Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza marched in to the last four of the mixed doubles.

The unseeded Indian team quelled the challenge of Simon Aspelin and Lisa Raymond, seeded second in the event, 6-3, 2-6, 10-7 before benefiting from a walkover given by seventh seeded Czechs Martin Damm and Kveta Peschke. In the boys' singles, Yuki Bhambri kept the Indian flag flying by advancing to the third round while curtains were drawn on Karunuday Singh's campaign.

The eighth seeded Bhambri rallied to beat Slovakia's Zalan Klempa 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in his second round match and will take on Japanese Tadayuki Loughi in the pre-quarter finals.

Karunuday went down fighting 6-7 (4-7), 4-6 against Tsung-Hua-Yang of Chinese Taipei in the same round.

Sixth seeded Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas would take on top seeded pair of Mike Bryan and Bob Bryan in the men's doubles quarter-finals on Wednesday.

OneIndia News