New York, Sept 3 : Sixth seeds Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina of Russia advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the women's doubles competition with a straight-set victory over Russian Vitalia Diatchenko and Olga Savchuk of Ukraine in the second round of the US Open.
The Indo-Russian pair beat Vitalia and Ogla 6-1, 7-6(5) in a contest that lasted for one hour and 17 minutes.
Sania and Elena kept a check on their unforced errors and broke their rivals five times out of the nine opportunities that came their way.
The duo will take on the winners between Romanian duo of Irina-Camelia Begu and Simona Halep and ninth seeded Czech pair of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.
Earlier, Sania and her mixed doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi suffered a shock first-round defeat. The Sixth seeds lost 3-6, 6-7 (5) to the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak in a contest that lasted a little over an hour.
Somdev Devvarman, who lost in the men's singles opening round against Andy Murray, also entered the men's doubles second round with a straight-set win.
The Indian and his Filipino partner Treat Conrad Huey defeated Russians Igor Andreev and Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4 to enter the men's doubles second round.
The Indo-Filipino pair broke their rivals four times in the course of the match that lasted one hour and seven minutes.
Somdev and Huey will face 14th seeds Argentines Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank in their next match. PTI
