aisam ul haq and bhopana enter French Open quarterfinals

PARIS: Indian Davis Cupper Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi advanced to the French Open men's doubles quarterfinals with a straight-set win over Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.

French Open 2011 

The fifth seed Indo-Pak pair recorded a 6-3, 7-5 win over their unseeded rivals in the third round in one hour and nine minutes.

It will be the third quarterfinal appearance in the last four Grand Slams for Bopanna and Qureshi.

They will now clash with top seeded American twins Mike and Bob Bryan, who defeated Russia's Teymuraz Gabashvili and Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan 7-6 (6), 7-5 in their pre-quarterfinal round.

Bopanna and Qureshi had lost to Bryan brothers in the US Open final last year.

Bopanna is the only Indian surviving in the men's doubles as Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi made a shock second round exit.

Later in the day, seventh seeds Sania Mirza and Russian Elena Vesnina will take on top seeds Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Flavia Pennetta of Italy in the women's doubles quarterfinals.

Another contest of Indian interest would be the mixed doubles quarterfinal between Indo-Czech pair of Paes and Iveta Benesova and the top seeded combination of Slovakian Katarina Srebotnik and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic.