Bhupathi/Likhovtseva in quarters

The Indo-Russian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Elenea Likhovtseva moved into the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles at the Australian Open on Tuesday.

The second seeded pair defeated the Aussie pair of Sandon Stolle and Annabel Ellwood 6-3, 6-2 in a second round match which lasted just 54 minutes.

The duo converted their second break chance off Ellwood in the fourth game to go ahead. They again had couple of break chances in the eighth game off Annabel, but could not convert them. Bhupathi served a love game to finish-off the set.

In the second set, Bhupathi/Likhovtseva converted both two break-points which came their way and the match was over quickly.

In the quarter-final, the Indo-Russian pair will face the seventh seeded pair of Rick Leach of the United States and Liezel Huber of South Africa.

Leach and Huber defeated the Czech pair of Petr Pala and Kveta Hrdlickova 7-5, 6-3 in the second round.

Only two seeded pairs remain in the draw.

Meanwhile, Leander Paes and Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands lost to the Argentine pair of Gaston Etlis and Paola Suarez 4-6, 7-6(7-0), 6-7(5-10) in their second round match, which took 82 minutes.

Paes/Oremans lost the first set in just 25 minutes, but came back to win the second set. Both the teams has one break each. In the tie breaker, Paes/Oremans won the set quickly at 7-0.

In the third set, which was extended to a super tie-breaker, the duo was only able to win five points as compared to their opponents' 10 points.