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Journalism of Courage
India’s Leander Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis moved a step closer to their first French Open crown together as they breezed into the mixed doubles quarterfinals after dispatching fourth seeds Yaroslav Shvedova and Florin Mergea, in Paris on Saturday.
Unseeded Paes and Hingis, who won three Grand Slams together in 2015, erased a one-set deficit to eke out a 2-6 7-5 10-6 win over a formidable combination in the rain-hit second round contest.
After losing their serve twice and breaking their rivals once, Paes and Hingis were trailing 2-3 when skies opened up, halting the match.
After play resumed, Paes and Hingis could not win a single game, losing three games in a row to surrender the opening set.
The Indo-Swiss had its share of chances but converted only one of the four break chances.
They almost dropped serve in the third game but managed to hold.
It was a tight contest from thereon with two pairs locked 5-5.
Shvedova and Mergea were serving to force a tie-breaker but Paes and Hingis capitalised on the second break point to drag it to a Super Tie-breaker.
They led 4-1 and then 8-4 before clinching the issue on their third match point.
They now await winners of the second round match between top seeds Hao-Ching Chan and Jamie Murray and Daria Gavrilova and John Peers.
