Melbourne: Sixth-seeded Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi kicked off their mixed doubles campaign in the Australian Open with a comfortable win over South African Natalie Grandin and Jean-Julien Rojer of Curacao here on Friday.
The Indian duo, winners here in 2009, took just 62 minutes in knocking out their first round opponents 6-4, 6-2. Sania and Bhupathi made just one unforced error and got an impressive 71 percent of their first serves in.
Another Indian, Rohan Bopanna teamed up with American Lisa Raymond to thrash Kazakh-Austrian pair of Galina Voskoboeva and Alexander Peya 6-1, 6-0. Raymond had partnered Indian veteran Leander Paes earlier in her career, and the duo won the 1999 Wimbledon and finished runner-up in the 2001 US Open.
In the men’s doubles, Paes teamed up with Czech Radek Stepanek to cap off a perfect day for the Indians as the pair completed their consecutive straight set victory beating Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-2, 7-6(7-5).
The Indo-Czech duo will now face third seeded French-Serbian pair of Michael Llodra and Nenad Zimonjic in the third round. (IANS)