Bhupathi-Bopanna, Paes-Stepanek advance to Miami quarters

Miami(Florida), March 27 (IANS) India's Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna moved into the quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson Open, Miami 2012 defeating Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Rafael Nadal while Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek ended British pair Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins' run in the tournament.

Bhupathi and Bopanna, seeded sixth, were in total command against the Spaniards as they took an hour and 14 minutes to dispose of their opponents 6-4, 6-3 Monday.

Bhupathi and Bopanna, who recently won the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, dropped just five points on their first serves for victory. They will next meet third seeds Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in the quarterfinals.

Paes and his Czech partner too had in easy outing against the unseeded British pair. The Indo-Czech pair cruised past Fleming and Hutchins 6-4, 6-3 in 82 minutes to set up a clash with Spaniards David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco.

The seventh seeded Indo-Czech pair though will have to work on their return of serves as they managed to win just 26 percent of first serves against the Brits.

Paes and Stepanek won 13 break points but managed to convert just four of them. Paes will look for a repeat result from last year's tournament when he along with Bhupathi beat Max Mirnyi Daniel Nestor to lift the doubles trophy here.