New Delhi: Indian tennis stars had a mixed bag at the Australian Open as Leander Paes got off to a winning start in mixed doubles but fourth seeds Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Barbora Strycova lost their women’s doubles match to an unseeded pair at the Rod Laver arena on Sunday.
Veteran Paes and Switzerland’s Martina Hingis won their first match against the Australian pair of Destanee Aiava and Marc Polmans 6-4 6-3 to progress to the round of 16 at the Melbourne Park.
The Indo-Siwss duo took 51 minutes to pull off a straight sets win with the help of two aces. They had 20 winners and committed nine unforced errors to their opponents’ 15 winners and 12 unforced errors.
However it was curtains for the Indo-Czech pair of Sania Mirza and Strycova as they lost to Japanese E Hozumi and M Kato 3-6 6-2 2-6 in a third round match that lasted one hour and 53 minutes.
In mixed doubles though, Sania and Croatia’s Ivan Dodig are in the second round, and so did Rohan Bopanna, winning their matches on Saturday.
PTI