Melbourne: Sania Mirza along with her Russian partner Elena Vesnina stormed into the second round of the Australian Open women’s doubles with a comprehensive 6-0 6-2 victory over Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou and Alexandra Panova of Russia here on Thursday.
The sixth seeded Indo-Russian duo dominated from the word go to completely outplay their unseeded opponents in just 50 minutes.
Sania-Vesnina won as many as 54 points against just 26 by Daniilidou and Panova during the match.
In the opening set, Sania and Vesnina hardly spared an inch as they swiftly wrapped up the set in just 19 minutes, converting three of their four break points they earned.
In the second set, although Daniilidou and Panova managed to put up some resistance, the Indo-Russian pair proved to be too strong for them.
Sania and Vesnina will now take on Eva Birnerova of Czech Republic and Italy’s Alberta Brianti in the second round.
Both Sania and Vesnina would also be playing in the mixed doubles event, with the former all set to renew her Australian Open winning partnership with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi, while the latter will be teaming up with another Indian in Leander Paes. (PTI)
