Wimbledon 2016 | SanTina begin Wimbledon defence in style

Sania and Hingis were back where it all began - the All England Lawn Tennis Club. The top seeds and defending champions, who won their first slam last year here, started their title defence against the German pair of Anna-Lena Friedsam and Laura Siegemund.

The match got off with Sania and Hingis breezing through the first game. In the next, despite bringing up two break points and five deuces, they failed to break the German pair. The top seeds faced a break themselves in the next game, but quickly regained to make it 2-1. The Germans won the next game to draw on par at 2-2, and looked threatening on the Indo-Swiss pair's next serve game. But Sania and Hingis tided over the brief challenge and then ran through the rest of the set with four straight games to win it 6-2.

In the second set, the top seeds lost their serve in the very first game. But the pair wrested parity by breaking the unseeded Germans in the next game. After trading breaks one more time to reach 2-2, both the pairs held their serve for the next seven games as the set reached 6-5 in favor of Sania and Hingis. Facing serve in the 12th game, the pair brought up the match point, but were thwarted the first time around. But, they wrapped up the set and match after gaining a second break point immediately.

The champions will next face another unseeded pair - the Japanese duo of Eri Kozumi and Miyu Kato in the second round.