Second seeds Rohan Bopanna [ Images ] and Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi progressed to the quarter-finals of the St Petersburg [ Images ] Open after a hard-earned win over Sergiy Stakhovsky and Mikhail Youzhny.

The 'Indo-Pak Express', aiming to make the ATP World Tour finals, beat their unseeded opponents 6-2, 2-6, 10-3 in the first round of the US $663,750 hard court event.

Meanwhile, top seeds Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] and Max Mirnyi [ Images ] also booked a last-eight berth in the Open Sud de France [ Images ] with a 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3) win over Brian Battistone and Andreas Siljestrom.

They will next face Stephen Huss and Ross Hutchins in the US $650,000 event.