Mirza and Hingis start with a win in BNP Paribas Open

Mirza and Hingis start with a win in BNP Paribas Open

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Image Courtesy: © Twitter - WTA

Defending champions Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis started their march towards the title with a straight sets victory over Casey Dellacqua and Samantha Stosur at the 2016 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. The Indo-Swiss duo defeated the Australian pair 6-3, 7-5 in the opening round.

Although their unbeaten run ended at Qatar Open last month, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis reached the Indian Wells tennis garden in California celebrating their one year anniversary. The dream pair had joined hands back in March 2015 and won their first tournament at the same venue beating Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. After winning 13 titles and a 41-match winning streak, the duo returned to the place where it all started and flagged off another run by beating the Australian pair of Casey Dellacqua and Samantha Stosur in the opening round.

The World No.1 stars smashed the memories of their last defeat in Qatar, out of the court by winning the first set 6-3. Mirza and Hingis broke the Australian pair twice while holding on to their own serves in the opening set. The Indo-Swiss pair won 81% of points on their first service to dominate the Australian pair, who only managed to win 65% of their first serves. With Dellacqua and Stosur committing double faults after double faults, Mirza and Hingis easily pocketed the first set without much trouble.

(Read about the domination of the World No.1 pair - Will the Sania- Hingis phenomenon turn the spotlight on women's doubles?)

However, the second set proved to be a different ball-game altogether with Dellacqua and Stosur breaking the World No.1 pair twice to mount a comeback. Mirza and Hingis returned the favour to the Australian duo and broke them thrice to pull the match back in favour of them. Although Dellacqua and Stosur made a match of it by cutting down their double faults and first service errors, Mirza and Hingis was the better team on the court and won the second set 7-5 to enter the second round. Mirza and Hingis will next take on Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva on Sunday.  

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