Paris: Sania Mirza and Cara Black, seeded fifth, were on Monday pitted against the very competitive team of Daniela Hantuchova and Shahar Peer in their opening round of the French Open women’s doubles event, here.
Sania has never won a Major trophy in women’s doubles and her best performance has been with Russian partner Elena Vesnina at this very tournament when they ended runners-up in 2011.
Sania also won her second mixed doubles Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2012 with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi.
In the run-up to the French Open, Sania and Cara ended runners-up twice and made the quarterfinals at two other clay court tournaments.
In the men’s doubles, Rohan Bopanna and Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi have been seeded sixth and open their campaign against Ivo Karlovic and Stephane Robert.
Bopanna and Qureshi finished runners up at Nice.
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are not playing at Roland Garros this year for different reasons. (PTI)