Australian Open: Indian stars score wins

India had a reasonably good day at the court as star players like Sania Mirza, Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes won their respective doubles encounter in the Australian Open on Wednesday.

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi cruised to the semi-final round of the mixed doubles event by defeating the pair of Liezel Huber of USA and Colin Fleming of United Kingdom.

The sixth seeded Indian pair defeated the opponents in straight sets by 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 margin.

Mirza and Bhupathi hit 27 winners in comparison to the 18 winners smashed by their opponents.

The Indian pair will meet the Italian pair of Roberta Vinci and Daniele Bracciali in the semi final clash.

Indian Tennis icon Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek defeated the pair of Eric Butorac of USA and Bruno Soares of Brazil by 6-4, 7-6 margin to reach the semi final round of the men´s doubles event of the tournament.

The match lasted for an hour and 39 minutes.

The Indo-Czech pair will meet Belarus´ Max Mirnyi and Daniel Nestor of Canada to register their seats in the final.

Paes joined his mixed doubles partner Elena Vesnina of Russia to beat Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Marcin Matkowski of Poland by 6-3, 7-5 margin.

Paes- Vesnina pair will meet the Indo-US pair of Rohan Bopanna and Lisa Raymond in the last eight stage.

However, Indo-Russian pair of Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina lost the semi final match against the Russian pair of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva by 6-7, 6-2, 4-6 margin.

The match lasted for two hours and 33 minutes.