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Paes reaches milestone, Bhupathi-Bopanna out
Leander Paes notched up the 600th doubles win of his career when he and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek progressed to the pre-quarterfinals of the Indian Wells Masters here. Seventh seeds Paes and Stepanek outplayed unseeded Spaniards David Ferrer and Albert Ramos 6-3 6-3 in their opening round.
However, fifth seeds Bhupathi and Bopanna, who had recently won Dubai Open, lost 4-6 3-6 to Julien Benneteau and Jo-wilfried Tsonga in their first round match.
Paes and Stepanek, the Australian Open champions, await winners of the other first round match between the pairs of Eric Butorac and Bruno Soares and Juan Monaco and Kei Nishikori.
Paes and Stepanek converted six of their eight break point opportunities for victory in 67 minutes.
The Indian, who turned pro in 1991 and will be 39 on 17 June, has a 600-311 record overall. Paes won the 2007 Indian Wells title with Martin Damm.
Murray shocked
World number one Novak Djokovic eased into the third round of the tournament on Saturday while fourth-seeded Andy Murray made a premature exit.
Djokovic, champion here in 2008 and last year, handed out a 6-3 6-2 thrashing to Kazakhstan qualifier Andrey Golubev, breaking his opponent's serve twice in each set to triumph in one hour 20 minutes.
World number four Murray, runner-up at Indian Wells in 2009, was upset 6-4 6-2 by 92nd-ranked Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, the second year in a row the Briton was eliminated in his opening match at Indian Wells.
“My return let me down and he hardly missed the ball,” Murray said. “I hit my backhand poorly tonight, no question. I didn’t move my best tonight, but it didn’t feel like I was moving really badly.”
Earlier, Czech Tomas Berdych advanced with a 6-7 6-3 6-4 win over Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky while American Andy Roddick clawed his way back to beat Poland's Lukasz Kubot 4-6 7-6 6-3.
Cruise control
Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki and former winner Maria Sharapova cruised into the third round of the WTA event with 6-2 6-0 victories.
Denmark’s Wozniacki launched her title defence by demolishing Russian Ekaterina Makarova and Sharapova, the 2006 champion, crushed Argentina’s Gisela Dulko at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
The 21-year-old Dane said she was excited to be back at Indian Wells. “This is one of my favourite tournaments and I always feel at home here,” she said.
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