Leander Paes and Samantha Stosur after their mixed doubles match in Melbourne on Sunday. Paes-Stosur defeated Yves Allegro and Elena Bovina 6-2, 6-2. (AFP)

Melbourne: Leander Paes had mixed fortunes on Sunday, crashing out of men’s doubles but staying alive in mixed doubles at the Australian Open.

Paes and his Czech Republic partner Martin Damm’s run ended after they lost their third round match to Julien Benneteau and Nicolas Mahut of France in straight sets. The fifth-seeded Indo-Czech pair went down 5-7, 6-7 (7-9) to the French duo in a two-hour long battle.

Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek, however, advanced as they defeated ninth seeds Lukas Dlouhy and Pavel Vizner of Czech Republic 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) make the men’s doubles third round.

Paes, however, stormed into the second round of the mixed doubles. The Indian and Samantha Stosur defeated Switzerland’s Yves Allegro and Russian Elena Bovina 6-2, 6-2 in the first round.

The Indo-Australian pair, seeded third, next face South African Chris Haggard and Greece’s Elini Daniilidou who beat Czech Republic’s Leos Friedl and Frenchwoman Tathiana Garbin 6-3, 6-1.