Mirza and Hingis start with a win in BNP Paribas Open

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.

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.