Melbourne: Leander Paes and Nathalie Dechy created the biggest upset in mixed doubles event when the Indian-French pair upstaged top seeds Kevin Ullyett (South Africa) and Cara Black (Zimbabwe) in straight sets in the first round of the Australian Open on Saturday.
It was a brilliant show by Paes and Dechy who needed less than an hour for their 6-3, 6-4 win and the top seeds were shown the door.
In the second round, Paes and Dechy will take on the winners of the match between Simon Aspelin-Meghann Shaughnessy and Sebastian Prieto-Virginia Ruano Pascual.
Paes and Dechy were at their best right from the word go and they held their serves and broke the top seeds once to pocket the first set in just 28 minutes.
Ullyett and Black put up a better fight in the second set and both the pairs were leveled at 3-3, but Paes and Dechy raised their game when it mattered most and broke their rivals to race to 5-3 and eventually went on to win the set in half an hour to breeze into the next round.
Already out of contention in both singles and women's doubles, Sania Mirza – partnering Australian Stephen Huss -- remains the other Indian in the fray and they face third seeds Bob Bryan (USA) and Vera Zvonareva (Russia) in their first round match in this event.
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