India’s Divij Sharan and his New Zealand partner Artem Sitak on Wednesday progressed to the second round of the Australian Open men’s doubles event after beating Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa.
However, it was curtains for Rohan Bopanna and his Japanese partner Yasutaka Uchiyama in the first round as they lost in three sets to the 13th seeded-pair of Mike and Bob Bryan. The American doubles greats, who are on their farewell tour, won 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 in an hour and 17 minutes.
Sharan and Sitak got the better of the Portuguese-Spanish duo 6-4 7-5 in a thrilling one hour 28 minute encounter.
The duo will next face the winner of the first-round match between 10th seeds Mate Pavio-Bruno Soares and Ben Molachlan and Luke Bambridge.
On Tuesday, India’s top-ranked tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran missed out on a chance to play against world No 2 Novak Djokovic after losing his men’s singles opening round match.
(With inputs from PTI)
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