India's tennis stars Sania Mirza, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna got their French Open campaign off to a winning start as the trio won their respective women's doubles and men's doubles matches to enter the second round here on Wednesday.
World No. 1 women's doubles pair of Sania and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis defeated the Russian pair of Darya Kasatkina and Alexandra Panova 7 - 6 (4), 6 - 2 in one hour and 31 minutes.
India's Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea outclassed Frenchmen Stephane Robert and Alexandre Sidorenko 6 - 2, 6 - 2 in a one - sided encounter in 56 minutes.
India's Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski defeated Belarusian and Uzbekistani pair of Alexander Bury and Denis Istomin 7 - 6 (3), 7 - 6 (6) in one hour 46 minutes.
The top seeds Indo - Swiss pair Sania - Martina began the match on a positive note, taking a vital 5 - 0 lead over the Russian pair in the first set.
But a couple of unforced errors and losing two successive serves handed Darya - Alexandra the advantage as they staged a remarkable comeback to make it 5 - 5 in the first set.
From there on it came down to 6 - 6 and the reigning Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open champions pair held their nerves to win the tie - breaker 7 - 4 to grab the first set.
The first set win proved a confidence booster for the top seeds as Sania - Martina, courtesy of a couple of aces and powerful forehand shots, took an important 4 - 2 lead in the second set.
There was no looking back for them as they went on to win the next two games and the second set 6 - 2 and enter the second round in style.
On the other hand, the sixth seeded pair Bopanna - Mergea started the first set on a good note, taking a comfortable 5 - 2 lead over the French pair.
From there on it was an easy task for the Indo - Romanian duo to clinch the first set 6 - 2.
The second set was a replay of the first as Bopanna - Mergea took a 4 - 1 lead and then grabbed the second set 6 - 2.
Later on the 16th seeded pair of Paes and Matkowski were on the back foot in the first set standing at 3 - 5 but came back strongly to level things at 6 - 6 and then eventually win the tie - breaker 7 - 3 in a one - sided contest to grab the first set.
In the second set too, despite being 4 - 3 down, the Indo - Polish pair levelled things once again making it 6 - 6 and won the tie - breaker yet again by 8 - 6 to march into the second round.
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