Bopanna,Sania win their doubles ties in Australian open

Melbourne, Jan 16(UNI) Rohan Bopanna clicked with his new American Indian partner while Sania Mirza continued with her winning streak as they emerged victorious in their respective doubles matches in the Australian Open tennis here today.

Bopanna teamed up with Rajeev Ram to start their partnership on a winning note as they overpowered the British-American duo of James Auckland and Sam Querrey 6-1 7-6 (4).

The duo played in tendem as they broke Auckland and Querrey twice to claim the first set in 25 minutes.

Bopanna and Ram lost bit of their concentration in the second but managed to regain it rather quickly to down their rivals who looked tentative throughout.

They will take on the winners of the tie between fifth seeded Indian-Australian pair of Leander Paes and Paul Hanley and unseeded Luis Horna of Peru and Austrian Stefan Koubek in the next round match.

Sania,who chalked out an easy first round win in singles yesterday, pairing with Australian Alicia Molik, seeded sixth- had to battle it out against unheralded Greco-German duo of Eleni Daniilidou and Jasmin Woehr before emerging 6-3 4-6 6-4 winner in two hours to sail into the second round.

Sania and Molik, face Russian pair of Nadia Petrova and Elena Vesnina, who overcame local pair of Sophie Ferguson and Trudi Musgrave 6-3 6-4 .

The sixth seed pair took 30-minutes to clinch the first set but were given a fright by their rivals in the second set as Daniilidou and Woehr broke them twice to win the set to draw parity.

However in the decider, Sania and Molik combined well and broke their rival thrice to claim the set and match.

UNI XC HSB AB KP1803