Indian tennis stars Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna notched up contrasting victories with their respective doubles partners to reach the round of 16 at the US Open on Sunday. Top seeds Sania and Martina Hingis stormed into the prequarterfinals of women’s doubles competition after streamrolling Swiss Timea Bacsinszky and Chinese Taipei’s Chia-Jung Chuang in straight sets.
The Indo-Swiss pair, who had won at Wimbledon in July, thrashed Bacsinszky and Chuang 6-1 6-1 in a match that lasted an hour. Saina and Martina will next take on 13th seeds Michaella Krajicek of The Netherlands and Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova.
The Indo-Swiss pair converted five out of seven breakpoints and sent down 18 winners to brush aside their rivals in the second round. In men’s doubles competition, sixth seeds Rohan Bopanna of India and Romania’s Florin Mergea staved off the challenge from Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico 6-3 7-6 (4/7) in a match that lasted an hour and 26 minutes.
The Indo-Romanian pair will next play ninth seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France. Sania and her mixed doubles partner Bruno Soares failed to cross the first hurdle on Saturday. Leander Paes and his partner Fernando Verdasco of Spain also lost their match yesterday.
