Melbourne: Leander Paes and partner Martina Navratilova advanced to the third round of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open Tuesday.

The Indo-US pair overcame the third-seeded duo of Mark Knowles (Bahamas) and Elena Likhovtseva (Russia) 6-2, 6-4. Likhovtseva, by the way, was the mixed doubles partner of Indian ace Mahesh Bhupathi last year.

Rastogi ousted

India’s Karan Rastogi lost 4-6, 5-7 to French fourth seed Mathieu Montcourt in the second round of the junior boys’ section.

The 16-year-old Rastogi, ranked 72 in the ITF junior world rankings, gave some anxious moments to the French, who is ranked fifth in the world. Rastogi, who teamed up with Somdev Dev Varman, was not lucky in the boys’ doubles either. The Indians lost 1-6, 6-1, 4-6 to fifth seeds Andis Juska (Latvia) and Micael Zverev (Germany) in the first round.

Dev Varman will meet Guy Thomas of Britain in a second-round match Wednesday. (Agencies)