Bhupathi-Petrova make Australian Open quarters

The Indo-Russian pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Nadia Petrova entered the mixed doubles second round at the Australian Open after defeating Anastasia Rodionova and Jean-Julien Roger here on Sunday.

The Bhupathi-Petrova pair eased past the Australian-Dutch pairing 6-4, 6-2 to join compatriots Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza in the second round. In fact, the Indian trio made a winning start with different partners.

The duo converted half of their eight break point opportunities while their opponents broke once in seven attempts. Their 34 winners to Srebotnik-Zimonjic's 10 also made a big difference in the one-sided scoreline. Bhupathi-Petrova are drawn to play Paes and Russia's Elena Vesnina in the quarter-finals.

Sania and Bob Bryan meet American duo of Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky for a place in the last eight while Bopanna and her partner from Chinese Taipei partner, Su-Wei Hsieh, face Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Italy's Fabio Fognini.