Paes-Stepanek through to Indian Wells quarters, will face Federer-Wawrinka next

Indian Wells, March 11 (IANS): India’s Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek marched into the quarterfinals of the ATP Indian Wells Masters tournament with a straight-set win over Jonathan Erlich from Israel and Richard Gasquet from France here Monday.

The Indo-Czech pair, seeded fourth, beat the wildcard entrants 6-3, 7-5 in an hour and 16 minutes.

Paes and Stepanek converted five of eight break point opportunities and in return gave little away on their own serves, getting broken just twice in the entire match.

In contrast, the wildcard pair gave several freebies away, recording six double faults, and they managed to win just 45 percent of the points on their second serve.

The fourth seeds will next play the Swiss pair of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka, who defeated Ernests Gulbis and Milos Raonic 7-6, 7-6.