Mahesh Bhupathi [ Images ] and his Bahamian partner Mark Knowles [ Images ] advanced to the Australian Open [ Images ] men's doubles third round after a straight-set victory but it was curtains for Rohan Bopanna [ Images ] and his Finnish partner Jarkko Nieminen who lost their second-round match in Melbourne [ Images ] on Saturday.

Third seeds Bhupathi and Knowles had to fend off a tough fight from the unseeded Russian pair of Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov [ Images ] before emerging 7-5, 7-5 victorious in a 92-minute duel.

The Indo-Bahamian pair will next take on Nicolas Lapentti [ Images ] of Ecuador and Tommy Robredo [ Images ] of Spain who defeated Bopanna and Nieminen 6-4, 6-4 in the second round.

Bhupathi and Knowles played near flawless tennis with no double faults and just three unforced to their opponents' 14 in the whole match. Though they had a slower service, the third seeded duo converted four out of nine break points that came their way. 

Bopanna and Nieminen, on the other hand, were error-prone and committed as many as 16 unforced errors to their opponents' 11. 

Another Indian, Leander Paes, and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy [ Images ], seeded fourth, had also sailed into the third round defeating unseeded Italian-Croat pairing of Fabio Fognini and Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-4 on Friday.

Partnering Sania Mirza [ Images ], Bhupathi has also made it to the second round of the mixed doubles.