Melbourne: Leander Paes had a great day in office at the Australian Open as he advanced to the men’s doubles semis with Martin Damm and then paired up with Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy to reach the mixed doubles quarter finals.

Paes and Czech partner Damm, the seventh seeds, upset No. 2 seeds Jonas Bjorkman (Sweden) and Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a last-eight clash lasting two hours.

Paes and Damm lost the first set after they were broken twice. But the duo came back strongly and earning the crucial break to level set scores. In the decider, which lasted 45 minutes, Paes and Damm got an early break to go 2-0 up and held on to emerge winners.

Paes and Damm, who had made the quarter finals of the Chennai Open in their first event together, will take on Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski. The unseeded Polish pair beat the US-Australian pair of Justin Gimelstob and Ashley Fisher 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in another quarter final.

In mixed doubles, Mahesh Bhupathi and Martina Hingis shocked second seeds Bjorkman and Lisa Raymond after coming through a third set super tie-break. The Indo-Swiss pair, playing for the first time, won 7-5, 6-7 (7-9), 10-7 to set up a quarter-final date with Aussies Todd Perry and Rennae Stubbs who eliminated Wayne Arthurs and Ai Suigyama 6-4, 7-5.

Paes and Dechy quelled the challenge of Simon Aspelin (Sweden) and Meghann Shaughnessy (US) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) also enter the last eight.

There was good news for India from the juniors section as well with third seed Sanam Singh advancing to the third round of boys singles. The chandigarh lad overcame stiff resistance from Todd Ley of Australia to force a 5-7, 6-0, 6-4 victory.

Sanam also progressed in boys doubles, as he and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan, the top seeds, overcame Belgians Ruben Bemelmans and Frederick de Fays 6-1, 7-5.

In girls doubles, Sanaa Bhambri and Sandhya Nagraj went down 4-6, 3-6 to Michaela Johansson and Johanna Larsson of Sweden. (PTI)