It was a day of mixed fortunes for India at the French Open on Friday. Leander Paes sailed into the pre-quarter-finals of the men's doubles, but Sania Mirza crashed out of the corresponding event for women.
Sania and Taipei's Chia-Jung Chuang, seeded 14th, were knocked out 6-4, 6-7(5), 3-6 by the unseeded Polish pair of Agnieszka and Urszula Radwanska.
Sania and Chuang had a chance to seal the match but failed to serve it out in the 10th game of the second set.
Third seeds Paes and Lukas Dlouhy staged a brilliant comeback to make it to the last 16. They defeated James Cerretani and Sergiy Stakhovsky 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
After losing the first set, the Indo-Czech pair drew on all their experience, stepped on gas and registered a comfortable win over the American-Ukranian pair in the end.
They next face the local pair of Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut.
Paes and Dlouhy dropped serve in the third game of the opening set to concede the lead. They got chances to settle scores in the sixth game but failed to convert any of the two break-points they earned.
The next games saw a furious fight as Paes and Dlouhy hunted for a break to draw level but despite coming close on many occasions conceded the first set.
The second set too was an intense fight. The first seven games went with serve, with Paes and Dlouhy saving a break-point in the seventh game.
Finally, the Indo-Czech pair found that elusive break in the eighth game, converted the second break-point and served out the set in the next game.
The third set was completely dominated by Paes and Dlouhy. They broke Benneteau and Mahut twice -- in the first and fourth games -- to make it easy in the end.
