Paes wins, Sania-Bhupathi crash out:Wimbledon

Indian tennis stalwarts Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, duo locked in a selection row for the London Olympic , saw their fortunes take different turns on Saturday with the former reaching the third round of the men's doubles event while the latter crashed out of mixed doubles.
 

The French Open champion pair of Bhupathi and Sania Mirza, who later joined the selection row by lashing out at the AITA for using her as a "bait" to pacify Paes, suffered a crushing 3-6 1-6 defeat to Australian P Hanley and A Kudryavtseva in a 50-minute mixed-doubles match at the All England Club in London.

However, Paes who confirmed his participation in the Olympics just on Friday and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek notched up a 6-2 6-4 7-6 (5) victory over Isreali combination of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in a gruelling two hour and 20 minutes battle.

Seeded fourth in the tournament, Paes and Stepanek rode on their batter serves and broke their rivals twice in the first set.

The Israeli pair started to get their bearings right in the second set but they failed to create opportunities even as Paes and Stepanek broke them once out of the five chances that came their way.

In the third set, both the pairs broke each other once but in the end it was the Indo-Czech combination who had the last laugh.

In contrast in mixed doubles event, the fifth seeded Indian duo of Bhupathi and Sania failed to match the game of their unseeded rivals and made an early exit.

The Australian-Russian duo sent down six aces and also broke the Indian pair four times out of the seven chances that came their way.

In comparison, Sania and Bhupathi failed to create any break opportunity and also had three double faults and four unforced errors.

The Indians, who would not be playing together in next month's London Olympics after the All India Tennis Association (AITA) paired Sania with Leander Paes in mixed doubles, were better than their rivals in their first serve but they failed miserably in the second serve in the opening set.

In the second set, Sania and Bhupathi looked lacklustre as Hanley and Kudryavtseva sent down four aces and pushed the Indians to commit unforced errors and sealed the match comfortably. The Indians were also broken thrice in the second set.

Meanwhile, the mixed doubles pair of Indian Rohan Bopanna and Jie Zheng of China got a walk over against the duo of Marcelo Melo of Brazil and Vera Zvonareva of Russia in the second round.

The 10th seeded Indo-Chinese pair will next play the winner of the match between the British duo of Dominic Inglot and Laura Robson and the combination of Jurgen Melzer of Austria and Iveta Benesova of Czech Republic. Four-time champion Serena Williams clinched a marathon triumph over China's Zheng Jie to reach the Wimbledon last 16 on Saturday as Lukas Rosol, the conqueror of Rafael Nadal, returned to anonymity.

Sixth-seed Williams, playing in her 13th Wimbledon, saw off 25th-seed Zheng, a semi-finalist in 2008, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 9-7 and will tackle Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan for a place in the quarter-finals.

"It was good to win that. I needed a tough match and she's always playing me incredibly well," said Williams.

Wildcard Shvedova will go into Monday's fourth round tie having made history as the first woman at a Grand Slam to achieve a Golden Set.

Shvedova won 24 points and conceded none in a first set 6-0 wipeout of Italian 10th seed, and French Open runner-up, Sara Errani on her way to the last 16 for the first time.

Shvedova, who won 23 points in succession at the Memphis tournament in 2006, took the second set 6-4.

"Today I laid a golden egg," the Kazakh later tweeted.

Czech world 100 Rosol had caused one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport when he beat world number two Nadal in five sets in the second round under the Centre Court roof on Thursday.

But on a windswept Court 12 on Saturday, normal service was resumed as German 27th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber, who beat Nadal on grass at Halle two weeks ago, eased to a 6-2, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6) win and a first appearance in the last 16.

Kohlschreiber, who claimed victory on a fourth match point, will tackle American qualifier Brian Baker for a place in the quarter-finals.

Baker's fairytale return hit a new high when he enjoyed a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory over France's Benoit Paire.

Baker lost six years of his career to an assortment of injuries that left him needing five different operations on a hernia, left and right hips and right elbow.

The 27-year-old, who started the year ranked 458, will rise to at least 78 after his performances at Wimbledon.

"It's been unreal," said Baker, who took a job as a college tennis coach to maintain his feel for the sport during his lengthy lay-off.

"On court I still have nerves when you know what's on the table and what you have accomplished. It's crazy."

Defending women's champion Petra Kvitova wasted little time moving into fourth round as the Czech took just 53 minutes to crush America's Varvara Lepchenko 6-1, 6-0.

The 22-year-old Kvitova, who has lost just 13 games in her three matches, blasted 15 winners and forced the out-classed Lepchenko to make 38 errors in a brutal demolition on Court One.

Kvitova, seeded fourth, will play former French Open champion Francesca Schiavone for a place in the quarter-finals.

"I'm feeling better with every match I play here. The third round today was much better than the first round," Kvitova said.

Former world number one Ana Ivanovic, the 14th seed, reached the last 16, coming from behind to clinch a 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win against Germany's Julia Goerges.

Ivanovic will play second seed Victoria Azarenka, a semi-finalist in 2011, who put out Slovak qualifier, and world number 178, Jana Cepelova, 6-3, 6-3.

Also going through was Austria's Tamira Paszek, the first round conqueror of former number one Caroline Wozniacki.

Paszek enjoyed a 2-6, 7-6 (7/4), 7-5 win over Belgium's Yanina Wickmayer and will face Italian 21st seed Roberta Vinci who defeated Croatia qualifier Mirjana Lucic in two tie-break sets.

Later Saturday, British fourth seed Andy Murray takes on Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus while three-time runner-up Andy Roddick faces Spain's David Ferrer.