28 Jun 2009, 1741 hrs IST

A rare Mahesh Bhupathi-Leander Paes face off is on the cards on Monday after the two, along with their respective partners, set up a third-round mixed doubles clash in the Wimbledon Championships here.

Bhupathi, along with compatriot Sania Mirza, beat local favourites Colin Fleming and Sarah Borwell 7-6, (4) 6-4 in a contest lasting more than an hour.

In contrast, top seeds Paes and his Zimbabwean partner Cara Black didn't even have to step on the court to advance as they got a walkover from the Slovak-Italian pair of Michal Mertinak and Mara Santangelo.

Seeded 13th, the Bhupathi-Sania combine was in for a tough fight from the locals.

In the first set, that lasted 51 minutes, both the pairs couldn't notch a break point and it went on serve all along. The Indians, however, ended the deadlock by winning the tie-breaker 7-4 to go one up.

Breakpoints were hard to come by even in the second set but Bhupathi and Sania managed to get the better of their rivals by converting one of the crucial two chances they got in the 36-minute affair.

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