Australian Open: Sania, Bopanna enter second round

Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski dug deep to beat Michael Venus and Katarina Srebotnik 6-4, 6-7, 10-7 even as Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig dismissed US Open champions Laura Siegemund and Mate Pavic 7-5, 6-4.

Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig won in straight sets in their first round match.

Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna advanced to the mixed doubles second round with their respective partners at the Australian Open here on Saturday.

Bopanna and his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski had to dig deep to beat Michael Venus and Katarina Srebotnik 6-4 6-7, 10-7 in a super tie-breaker.

A little later, second-seeded pairing of Mirza and Croatia's Ivan Dodig beat US Open champions, Laura Siegemund and Mate Pavic 7-5, 6-4.

While the Indian challenge in the men's doubles has already ended with the exit of Bopanna and Leander Paes, Mirza still remains in the contention in the women's doubles partnering Czech Republic's Barbora Strycova.

The fourth seeds eased past the Australian-Chinese pair of Samantha Stosur and Shuai Zhang in a second round match on Friday.

Siddhant Bhatia lost his first round boys' singles match against Australia's Alexander Crnokrak 6-2, 6-7, 5-7.

However in the girls' singles first round, Zeel Desai overcame a stiff challenge from local hope Kaitlin Staines to win 6-4, 3-6, 7-5.