Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi took contrasting routes to the doubles quarter-finals in the Internazionali BNL D'Italia tennis tournament in Rome on Thursday. Third seeds Paes and his Czech partner Lukas Dlouhy swamped Ivo Karlovic and Dusan Vemic 6-1, 6-1, while fourth seeded Bhupathi and his Bahamian teammate Mark Knowles survived some torrid moments before beating unheralded Simon Bolelli and Andreas Seppi 7-6(5), 2-6, 10-3.
Leander Paes had a bitter-sweet experience at the Australian Open, sailing into the semi-finals of the mixed doubles but crashing out of men's doubles, in Melbourne, on Wednesday.
Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi reached their third Tour level final of the season after clinching a three-set thriller against Leos Friedl of Italy and Serbian Dusan Vemic in Nice, France.
Rafael Nadal's tender knees passed their first test when the Spaniard returned to action on Monday in a doubles win at the Montreal Masters. Sidelined for more than two months with tendonitis in both knees, Nadal looked fighting fit as he teamed up with coach Francisco Roig to beat Serbian duo Novak Djokovic and Dusan Vemic 7-5, 6-4.
The Indo-Australian pair was beaten by the second-seeded Serbian pair of Llia Bozoljac and Dusan Vemic 6-1, 3-6, 11-13.
Rohan Bopanna and Eric Butorac claimed the doubles title in Los Angeles with a 7-6, 7-6 win over Travis Parrott and Dusan Vemic.
Sania and Michaella Krajicek lost to Elena Dementieva and Flavia Penetta in the second round of the women's doubles at Wimbledon.