Paes advances, Sania crashes out of mixed doubles

Paris, Jun 4 (UNI) On a day of contrasting fortunes, Leander Paes and his Russian partner Maria Kirilenko scored an upset win over third seeds, but Sania Mirza and her Aussie comrade-in-arms Paul Hanley crashed out following a straight set loss to the sixth seeds in the mixed doubles event of the French Open here.

Paes and Kirilenko upset third seeded American duo of Meghann Shaughnessy and Mike Bryan 6-3, 1-6, 6-2 to advance into the second round but Sania and Paul proved to be no match for the experienced sixth seeded US pair of Martina Navratilova and Bob Bryan, who dominated throughout to win 6-0, 6-4 at the Roland Garros.

Sania -- already out of contention in the singles event -- and Paul were blanked out in the first set, but recovered to put up some resistence in the second set. The effort proved to be inadequate as Martina and Bob saw off the challenge to take the set and win the match.

However, Paes -- out of the men's doubles event -- and Kirilenko fought hard in their three-set first round match against the third seeds to advance.

The unheralded Indo-Russian pair shocked the American duo by winning the first set 6-3 but Shaughnessy-Bryan recovered to win the next. However, in the decider, Paes and Kirilenko outplayed the Americans to cause a major upset.

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