London Olympics: Sania Mirza & Leander Paes move into quarterfinals
LONDON: Leander Paes and Sania Mirza made a winning start to their bid for a Olympic Games mixed doubles medal as the Indian duo defeated Serbia's Nenad Zimonjic and Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday.
With all the Indian men's and women's doubles teams eliminated from the Games, Paes and Mirza are their country's last hope of a medal and they remain in the hunt after a comfortable first round win on Court 14 at Wimbledon. Next up for Paes and Mirza is a quarterfinal clash against Belarusian top seeds Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi.
The Indian pair are playing together in controversial circumstances after Paes demanded an assurance that only he would be paired with Mirza, rather than Mahesh Bhupathi or Rohan Bopanna, following the row over Bhupathi's refusal to play with Paes in the men's doubles.
Mirza previously admitted she was uncomfortable at being used as "bait" to keep Paes happy after winning two Grand Slam titles with Bhupathi.