Paes-Damm, Sania-Huber pairs advance in US Open

New York, Sep 4 (UNI) Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm beat the Austrian-German pair of Alexander Peya and Bjorn Phau 6-3, 7-6 (7/4) to enter the third round of the men's doubles event, while Sania Mirza -- teaming up with South African Liezel Huber -- also moved into the third round of the women's doubles event at the US Open here.

However, curtains came down on Sania's campaign in the mixed doubles as the Indian and her Czech partner Pavel Vizner were knocked out in the first round.

Meanwhile, the sixth seeded pair of Paes and Damm will now take on the 11th seeded Austrian duo of Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer.

In the women's doubles event Sania and Huber beat the French-Spanish pair of Stephanie Cohen-Aloro and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-0, 6-3. However, in the mixed doubles Sania and Pavel went down 2-6, 6-3, 7-10 to the sixth seeded Slovenian-Serbian pair of Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic.

Sania and Huber will now take on the sixth seeded Czech-Italian pair of Kveta Peschke and Francesca Schiavone in the third round.

Paes and Damm were in fine form in the opening set and gave away little before running away with it to seize the initiative but the duo had to struggle hard in the next set, which was decided through tie-break.

The sixth seeds were pushed hard by their unheralded rivals but Paes and Damm overcame the jitters to seal the issue in their favour in the tie-breaker.

Sania and Huber, meanwhile, had no trouble getting past their French-Spanish rivals and after blanking them in the opening set, the Indo-African duo conceded just three games before sealing the match in their favour.

However, things went horribly wrong for Sania and Pavel in the mixed doubles and the pair was completely out of sorts in the first set against their seeded opponents.

Sania and Pavel then staged a dramatic comeback and surprised Katarina and Nenad to equalise by taking the second set. But the effort proved to be a flash in the pan and the Indo-Czech duo could not build on their revival as Katarina and Nenad held their nerves to win the match in the tie-breaker.

Meanwhile, in the boys' singles competition, which started yesterday, sixth seeded Sanam Singh made shocking first round exit losing 1-6,1-6 to unheralded Canadian Yoann Re.

Disappointment continued as Rupesh Roy blew away a set's advantage to lose 6-4, 5-7, 0-6 against Portugal's Gastao Elias in another first round boys' single's match.

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