Mirza, Bhupathi bow out in Australian Open tennis quarterfinals

Mahesh Bhupathi of India and Nadia Petrova of Russia are photographed in action in their Mixed Doubles Quarterfinals match against Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden of Australia during Day 11 of the 2013 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Jan. 24, 2013 in Melbourne, Australia. Lucas Dawson/Getty Images

Melbourne, Jan 24 (IANS) It was a bad day at the office for India as both Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi lost their respective mixed doubles quarterfinal matches at Melbourne Park here Thursday. This brings an end to the Indian challenge at the 2013 Australian Open.

Bhupathi and Russian Nadia Petrova were upset by the unseeded Australian pairing of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden at Margaret Court Arena. The fifth seeds lost 3-6, 6-3, 11-13 in one hour and 21 minutes.

After losing the first set, the Indo-Russian pair came back to win the second set getting their first break on their fifth opportunity. The super tiebreaker was a neck-and-neck affair which the Australian duo clinched, crucially winning all the points on their second serve, maintaining a 100 per cent record.

Earlier on the same court, Mirza and American partner Bob Bryan, seeded third, were defeated by the unseeded Czech duo of Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak 5-7, 4-6 in one hour and five minutes.

Both pairs broke each other in both the sets. However, the Czech pair broke one extra time to win both the sets in the evenly contested match.

Tags: Mahesh Bhupathi, Sania Mirza