London: The fifth day of the Wimbledon was more of a mixed bag for the Indian fans as Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek managed to make through the second round of men’s doubles while Mahesh Bhupathi and Daniels Hantuchova were knocked out of the mixed doubles.
The match that was stretched to the second day, was finally won by the duo of Paes and Stepanek 7-6 (6) 6-4, 6-7 (1), 6-4 in three hours and five minutes. They did have a tough time against the Italian-Israeli, but held their nerves to advance to the second round. The fourth seed Indo-Czech pair will next face local guy Jamie Delgado and Australian Matthew Ebden.
Meanwhile, in mixed doubles, it wasn’t a good day for Mahesh Bhupathi and Daniela Hantuchova as they were knocked out after giving their best effort. They started off well against the duo of Mark Knowles of Bahamas and Sabine Lisicki of Germany to clinch the first set which went into a tie-breaker 7-6 (2) but after that nothing went in their favour and they lost the next two sets by 4-6, 4-6.
Bhupathi's hopes at Wimbledon are still alive as he has made it to the second round of the men’s doubles with Austrian partner Julian Knowle. They will take on the pair of American Nicholas Monroe and Simon Stadler of Germany.
