Indians advance at Australian Open

Bopanna and Cuevas, who is seeded 15th, won 6-4 and 7-6, while Sania and Strycova too won in straight sets 6-3, 6-1, against Rae and Smith of Britain. Bopanna and Cuevas will now take on Australians Alex Bolt and Bradley Mousley, who defeated Robin Haase and Florian Mayer 6-3, 5-7, 6-4. Both Bopanna and Sania will have some problem areas to fix before the next round in a highly competitive doubles schedule. 

Bopanna’s awesome backhand returns and his serve worked well while his Peruvian partner worked some magic at the net. The second set went to the tie-break due to some rough hitting by Cuevas but with Bopanna’s calm approach they got through in the tie breaker. Their Latin American opponents Belluci of Brazil and Gonsalez of Argentina tried to smother Bopanna’s back hand shots but not with much success. 

Bellucci was a formidable opponent from the baseline but Cuevas met him effectively at the net after some initial hiccups. The fourth seed Indo-Czech pairing of Sania and Barbora will next play the winners of the first round match between the Australian pair of Kimberly Birrell-Priscilla Hon and the Aussie-China team of Samantha Stosur and Shuai Zhang.