Veteran Indian star Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek on Sunday sailed into the Australian Open quarter-
finals after a straight-set win over the unseeded pair of Yuki Bhambri and Michael Venus in the men’s doubles competition in Melbourne.
Fifth seeds Paes and Stepanek hit 25 winners en route their 6-3 6-2 win over India’s Bhambri and his Kiwi companion Michael Venus in the pre-quarterfinal, which lasted 65 minutes.
The Indo-Czech pair broke the serve of their opponents three times to book their berth in the last-eight stage of the tournament.
Paes and Stepanek are looking to win the Australian Open title for the second time, following their victory in 2012 over Bryan brothers.
They had added a second Grand Slam championship to their collection at last year’s US Open with victory over Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares.
Meanwhile, the seventh seeded pair of India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi endured a shocking defeat against the 12th seeded duo of Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot to crash out of the men’s doubles event.
The Filipino-British pair of Huey and Inglot scored an upset 6-4 7-6(1) win over last week’s Sydney finalists Bopanna and Qureshi in the top half of the draw.
Huey-Inglot sent down 10 aces and hit 35 winners to set up a potential quarter-final duel with top seeds Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan.
In the junior girls’ singles event, India’s Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal lost 3-6 3-6 to Germany’s Katie Boulter.
In the junior boys’ doubles first round, the eighth seeded pair of India’s Sumit Ngal and Korea’s Hyeon Chung went down to the Spanish duo of Martinez Portero and Munar Clar 3-6 6-7.
Serena shocker dashes Grand Slam bid
An injury-hit Serena Williams crashed out of the Australian Open against Ana Ivanovic on Sunday, denying her an 18th major title and the chance to win a rare calendar-year Grand Slam.
Williams won the first set but Ivanovic, capitalising on her poor movement and high error-count, took her first ever set against the top seed and then raced through the decider to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
The shock result robs Williams of the chance to join Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova on 18 Grand Slams, and draw nearer to Steffi Graf’s Open-era record of 22.
It also puts paid to her bid talked up by her coach, Patrick Mouratoglou to win all four Grand Slam titles this year, a feat last achieved by Graf in 1988.
Williams’ departure provides a giant opportunity to those left in the draw, including Ivanovic, defending champion Victoria Azarenka and Li Na, who beat Ekaterina Makarova to reach the quarter-finals.
Afterwards, the American world number one confessed that she was on strong medication for a back injury and nearly pulled out injured before her third-round win over Daniela Hantuchova.
“I almost pulled out. I’m such a competitor. I mean, I probably should have,” Williams said.
She added “I made a tremendous amount of errors, shots I missed I normally don’t miss, I haven’t missed since the ’80s. I’m just not used to missing those shots.”
Five-time champion Williams has a chequered recent record at the season’s opening Grand Slam. Last year, she struggled with an ankle problem before going out in the quarter-finals.
