India’s tennis stars Leander Paes and Sania Mirza stormed into the second round of their respective mixed doubles events while Purav Raja was knocked out of the men’s doubles of the French Open tennis tournament here on Thursday. They surged to a 4-1 lead before closing out the first set 6-2 after a long eighth game.
Advertisement
Earlier this month, the top-ranked pair captured their 14th women’s doubles title together at the Italian Open in Rome. They maintained their dominance to reach 5-2 and were in total control as they claimed the first set 6-3 on Court 6.
Sixth seeds Bopanna and Florin Mergea defeated the French pair of Gregoire Barrere and Quentin Halys 6-3 6-4 in the second round in Paris. They took a 5-0 lead in the first set and cruised to the first set 6-1. But they were pegged back with the French pair breaking back immediately to 2-2.
They won 67 of the total 121 points played, committing seven unforced errors as compared to 2 by their opponents. Breaks of serve were traded again but the experienced Bopanna-Mergea pair dashed all hopes of the crowd by snatching the crucial decisive break for the win.
In the first set, it was the big points that made all the difference.
Later, Paes-Matkowski produced another dominating performance to earn a comfortable victory.
The world number one team broke Kasatkina and Panova in the very first game of the second set but only to be broken back in the next. From there on it was an easy task for the Indo-Romanian duo to clinch the first set 6-2.
Advertisement
Paes-Hingis won 17 out of 25 first serve points and three out of six second serve points in the second set. Find us on Facebook too!
