Paris, May 25 (IANS) 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 here 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 tie-breaker 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.
