US Open: Sania-Bethanie in third round

Indo-American pair of Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands moved into the women’s doubles third round of the US Open here at the Flushing Meadows.

Sania-Bethanie, seeded 13th, defeated the unseeded Croat-Hungarian pair of Darija Jurak and Katalin Marosi 6-4, 6-2 in one hour and 39 minutes Saturday.

The Indo-American pair broke their opponents four times, twice in each set, to earn a straight sets victory.

They have a tough task ahead as they face Italian second seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci for a place in the quarterfinals.

In mixed doubles, Leander Paes with Elena Vesnina of Russia overcame unseeded American-Filipino duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and Treat Conrad Huey 6-4, 7-5.

The third seeds wrapped up the game in one hour and 19 minutes to enter round two.

Paes-Vesnina will next take on American duo of Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky for a place in the quarters.

Rohan Bopanna’s US Open campaign came to an end as he, with partner Jie Zheng of China, lost to Australia-Dutch pairing of Anastasia Rodionova and Jean-Julien Rojer 2-6, 5-7 in one hour and eight minutes in the first round of mixed doubles.

Bopanna partnering Mahesh Bhupathi had lost Thursday in the first round of men’s doubles to Australians Matthew Ebden and Bernard Tomic.

In the junior men’s singles event, India’s Sumit Nagal qualified for the main draw upsetting Brazilian Hugo Cesar Dojas 7-6 (3), 7-5 in round two of qualifying.

He next faces eight seed Kaichi Uchida of Japan in the first round.

IANS