Australian Open: Mixed day for Indians as Paes wins, shock exit for Bopanna
Fourth-seeded team of Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea, who have been on a wonderful run recently, were knocked out in the third round of the men's doubles at the Australian Open. However, he and his partner Yung-Jan Chan made it through to the second round of the mixed doubles, accompanied by Leander Paes and Martina Hingis.
Fourteenth-seeded team of Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi, who partnered Mahesh Bhupathi back in 2008, defeated Bopanna and Mergea 6-4, 6-3 in straight sets. The Indo-Romanian pair were far from their best, as they made eight double faults and 23 unforced errors.
Bopanna did, however, won his mixed doubles match, with his partner Yung-Jan Chan - the elder of the Chan sisters. They defeated the Australian pair of Kimberly Birrell and John Millman in their first round clash 7-5, 6-1. Bopanna and Chan produced 32 winners in this game, which lasted only 48 minutes.
The third-seeded pair will now face Andrea Hlavackova, Bopanna's mixed doubles partner in 2014, and Lukasz Kubot in their next round.
Earlier in the day, Leander Paes and Martina Hingis also progressed through to the second round of the mixed doubles, after defeating the Russian-German pair of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Dominic Inglot 6-3, 7-5. Paes and Hingis won three Grand Slams last year, including the Australian Open, and will be one of the teams to watch out for. Paes will like to redeem himself in mixed doubles, after being knocked out of the men's doubles in the first round.
The duo will now face the American-Dutch pair of Sloane Stephens and Jean-Julien Rojer, who partnered Paes in 1993, in their round two clash.
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