Indian ace Rohan Bopanna and his Chinese partner Shuai Zhang advanced to the second round of the Australian Open mixed doubles with a straight sets 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ivan Dodig and Kristina Mladenovic on Friday.
Bopanna and Zhang, closed the match in one hour and 12 minutes, will next face the winners of the match between the fourth-seeded pair of American Taylor Townsend and Hugo Nys of Monegasque and wild card Australian duo of Maddison Inglis and Jason Kuber.
The Indo-Chinese duo began the match with a strong performance, securing a 3-0 lead in the opening set. Despite a break of Zhang’s serve by the Croatian Dodig and Frenchwoman Mladenovic, which brought the score to 3-2, Bopanna maintained composure under pressure, ultimately serving out the set with a 6-4 win.
Zhang/Bopanna then fought off a late challenge and won the second set 6-4, saving break points in the 8th game.
Bopanna, who had suffered an early exit from the men’s doubles competition, had reached the mixed doubles final with Sania Mirza in 2023.
Earlier in the tournament, India’s N Sriram Balaji and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela progressed to the second round of the Australian Open 2025 men’s doubles.
But, the all-Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth failed to cross the opening round hurdle, going down to Gregoire Jacq of France and Brazil’s Orlando Luz with a 6-2, 6-2 scoreline.
Another Indian Anirudh Chandrasekar and his Polish partner Karol Drzewiecki, who entered the tournament as alternates, put up a strong fight against Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Petros Tsitsipas of Greece before going down 7(7)-6(1), 2-6, 7(10)-6(6).
–IANS
