It was a successful start for the Indian players at the 2017 Australian Open on Wednesday, with Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna winning their respective opening doubles matches.
In women’s doubles, the fourth seeded pair of Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova won in straight sets, 6-3, 6-1, against the British team of Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith in an hour’s duration. Mirza and Strycova won 67% points off their first serves to their opponents’ 53% and converted five of the 10 break point chances they had. They also won over 50% points on their return, winning a total of 65 points for the match.
Mirza and Strycova await the winner of the match between the Australian team of Kimberly Birrell and Priscilla Hon, and the Australian-Chinese team of Samantha Stosur and Shuai Zhang in the second round.
The 15th seeded team of Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas defeated the Brazilian-Argentinian combination of Thomaz Bellucci and Maximo Gonzalez in the men’s doubles. Bopanna and his Uruguayan partner also won in straight sets, 6-4, 7-6, in 84 minutes. Bopanna and Cuevas won 85% points off their first serves to their opponents’ 60%. They weren’t however able to capitalise much on their conversion of break points, winning only two of the six break points they faced. The Indo-Uruguayan pair finished the match with a total of 78 points to their opponents’ 69.
Bopanna and Cuevas will next meet the Australian pairing of Alex Holt and Bradley Mousley in the second round. Holt and Mousley defeated the Dutch-German team of Robin Haase and Florian Mayer in their opener.
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