Paris: India’s tennis stars Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna got their French Open campaign off to a winning start as the duo won their respective women’s doubles and men’s doubles matches to enter the second round on Wednesday.
World No. 1 women’s doubles pair of Sania and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis defeated Russian pair of Darya Kasatkina and Alexandra Panova 7-6 (4), 6-2 in one hour and 31 minutes.
India’s Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea outclassed Frenchmen Stephane Robert and Alexandre Sidorenko 6-2, 6-2 in a one-sided encounter in 56 minutes.
The top seeds Indo-Swiss pair Sania-Martina began the match on a positive note, taking a vital 5-0 lead over the Russian pair in the first set.
But a couple of unforced errors and losing two successive serves handed Darya-Alexandra the advantage as they staged a remarkable comeback to make it 5-5 in the first set.
From there on it came down to 6-6 and the Indo-Swiss pair held their nerves to win the tiebreaker 7-4 to grab the first set.
The first set win proved a confidence booster for the top seeds as Sania-Martina, courtesy of a couple of aces and powerful forehand shots, took an important 4-2 lead in the second set.
There was no looking back for them as they went on to win the next two games and the second set 6-2 and enter the second round in style.
On the other hand, the sixth seeded pair Bopanna-Mergea started the first set on a good note, taking a comfortable 5-2 lead over the French pair. From there on it was an easy task for the Indo-Romanian duo to clinch the first set 6-2.
The second set was a replay of the first one as Bopanna-Mergea took a 4-1 lead and then grabbed the second set 6-2.
