Leander Paes advances to Wimbledon third round

India News Bulletin Desk
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LONDON – India’s Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek beat Isreali combination of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram to reach the third round of men’s doubles at Wimbledon.

Paes-Stepanek scored a 6-2, 6-4, 7-6 (5) victory over the Isreali duo in a two-and-a-half-hour match.

Seeded fourth in the tournament, Paes and Stepanek will next play either the Croatian-Brazilian duo - Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo or Germany’s Martin Emmrich and Michael Kohlmann.

The Indian tennis star had earlier confirmed his participation in the London 2012 Olympics games. Paes will be paired with Sania Mirza for the mixed doubles at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Paes was one of the contenders to be India's flag bearer at the London Olympics Opening Ceremony but the Indian Olympic Association selected wrestler Sushil Kumar Solanki to be India's flag-bearer. 

While Paes crashed out in the third round of Men's doubles at Wimbledon, he and his mixed doubles partner from Russia -- Elena Vesnina -- entered the mixed doubles final of the Wimbledon championships after defeating Australia's Ashley Fisher and Germany’s Mona Barthel. Paes-Vesnina lost to second seeded American players Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond in the finals and ended runners up.

After delivering a fine performance at Wimbledon 2012, Indian tennis fans had great expectations from Leander Paes at the London Olympics. However, Paes delivered a lacklustre performance at the Olympics' tennis events along with other Indian tennis qualifiers such as Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi.

Find out how Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi combo fared in their Wimbledon mixed doubles round.

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