MELBOURNE: Progress to round two with straight set wins

Indian tennis stars enjoyed comfortable wins in the Australian Open on Thursday as Sania Mirza eased into the second round with partner Martina Hingis while Rohan Bopanna also registered a straight sets win in the men’s doubles first round here.

Sania’s rampaging run with her Swiss partner continued as the duo stretched its winning streak to 31 after brushing aside Mariana Duque-Marino and Teliana Pereira 6-2, 6-3 in the women’s doubles opening round. The duo hardly broke a sweat in its 70-minute win against the unseeded Colombian-Brazilian pair. Sania and Hingis, who are slated to face the twin sisters from Ukraine – Nadiia Kichenok and Lyudmyla Kichenok – in the next round, are also sitting pretty at the top of the women’s doubles rankings. Bopanna, who took court soon after, combined well with Romanian partner Florin Mergea to outplay the Australian duo of Omar Jasika and Nick Kyrgios 7-5 6-3. The fourth seeds play Lukas Dlouhy and Jiri Vesely in the second round. Indian veteran Mahesh Bhupathi has already booked his second-round berth alongwith partner Gilles Muller, while Leander Paes bowed out after a first-round loss alongside French partner Jeremy Charady.PTI