Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek survived a tough test before securing their passage to the quarter-finals of the USD 2,100,000 Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells.

Sania and Mattek, seeded seventh in the draw, defeated Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus and Russian Anastasia Rodionova 6-2, 4-6, 10-7 to advance to the last eight.

The Indo-US pair started well and dominated the first set, but their opponents levelled the match by claiming the second.

The encounter was, thus, pushed to a super tiebreaker, which was also close but Sania and Mattek held their nerve to seal the win.

Meanwhile, Sania will face her former doubles partner Shahar Peer in the third round of the singles competition after the ninth seeded Israeli prevailed over Uzbekistan`s Akgul Amanmuradova 6-1, 6-4.

Sania is seeded 21 in singles in the Tier I event.
In the USD 3,589,000 men`s Masters Series event being held at the same venue, Leander Paes and Australian Paul Hanley, seeded eighth, will take on the Argentine combination of David Nalbandian and Gullermo Canas in the second round.

Sixth seeded Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles of Bahamas will start their campaign against German Christopher Kas and Rogier Wassen of the Netherlands.