Paes-Vesnina beat Fisher-Barthel to move into Wimbledon pre-quarters

India's Leander Paes and Russian partner Elena Vesnina, the fourth seeds in the Wimbledon mixed doubles draw, moved into the pre-quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-3 win over the unseeded pairing of Aussie Ashley Fisher and German Mona Barthel, says a report in The Times Of India.

Paes and Vesnina, who had a first round bye, started strongly, breaking Fisher in the first game of the match. The Russian's forehand nailing the break for the fancied pairing. In the second set, Paes and Vesnina broke away after the fifth game in a match in which they were never really tested. Next up for Paes and Vesnina, who made the French Open semifinals and the final of the Australian Open, is Belarus' highvoltage Olympic pairing of Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi.

Meanwhile a Hindustan Times report says that the Indo-Russian duo face a tough test in the next round as they face Belarussian pair of Max Mirnyi and Victoria Azarenka. While Azarenka is the ruling Australian Open singles champion and currently ranked No 2 in the world, Mirnyi, nicknamed "beast" is a proficient doubles specialist.

“The Indian players haven't had best outings at the All England Club this year. French Open champions Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza fell in the second round of mixed doubles to Paul Hanley and Alla Kudryavtseva. Meanwhile, in men's doubles, India suffered a double whammy on Tuesday as Bhupathi-Rohan Bopanna and Paes-Radek Stepanek crashed out,” says the report.

Sania and Bethanie Mattek-Sands were scheduled to take on the Williams sisters, Serena and Venus, in the women's doubles third round later on Wednesday. Rohan Bopanna and Jie Zheng too are still alive in the mixed doubles.