Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi – File photo

MELBOURNE: Pakistan’s Aisam-ul-Haq and his partner Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden crashed out of the first round of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open on Saturday.

Aisam and Arvidsson offered tough resistance to the second-seeded pair of Indian Leander Paes and Russian Elena Vesnina before losing out 6-7 (6-8), 6-4, 10-7 in the contest which lasted 108 minutes.

Aisam, however, is still in contention for the men’s doubles title after he and his Dutch partner Jean-Julien Rojer, seeded sixth at the event, brushed aside the Belgian duo of Xavier Malisse and Dick Norman 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 to move into the third round on Friday.—Agencies