Olympics: Paes-Sania enter mixed doubles QF

London: Leander Paes and Sania Mirza defeated the Serbian pair of Nenad Zimonjic and Ana Ivanovic in straight sets to enter the mixed doubles quarter-finals of the London Olympics here on Thursday.

Paes-Sania beat the Serbian pair 6-2, 6-4 in only 64 minutes to set up a last-eight clash with top seeds Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka from Belarus.

The Indian pair dominated the proceedings from the start as they broke their opponent's serve in the third game, but the Serbians broke back to get scores levelled at 2-2.

File photo of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza in action during the Doha Asian Games 2006.

However both Zimonjic and Ivanovic's serve was broken once each in the fifth and the seventh game of the first set, respectively, before the winners closed out the set at 6-2.

The first set was played for merely 26 minutes.

Paes-Mirza got an all-important break in the very first game of the second set and then held their serves to win the match in the 10th game.

Paes was as usual amazing at the net with timely anticipations but credit should also be given to Sania for hitting some fantastic winners, including a few booming forehand returns and some lovely down-the-line shots.

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