Paris, May 26 (IANS) India's veteran tennis player Leander Paes and his mixed doubles partner Martina Hingis stormed into the second round while Purav Raja was knocked out of the men's doubles of the French Open tennis tournament here on Thursday.
The Indo-Swiss duo defeated the German-Colombian pair of Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Robert Farah 6-4, 6-4 in one hour and eight minutes in the first round.
Paes-Hingis began the match on a positive note taking a vital 4-2 lead after they broke the German-Colombian pair once in the first set.
The pair played sensibly from there on to not lose the advantage and eventually win the first set 6-4 with ease.
The first set win proved a confidence booster for Paes-Hingis as the experienced duo yet again broke their opponent in the second set and took an important 4-2 lead over the opposition.
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Anna-Robert won two games from there on to reduce the margin to 5-4, but there was no looking back for the experienced pair as they went on to win the next game and grab the second set 6-2 and enter the second round in style.
Paes-Hingis won 17 out of 25 first serve points and three out of six second serve points in the second set.
Later on, Raja and his Croatian partner Ivo Karlovic went down to ninth seeded Polish-Austrian pair of Lukasz Kubot and Austrian Alexander Peya 1-6, 2-6 in just 47 minutes in the first round.
It was a match dominated entirely by Kubot-Peya. They took a 5-0 lead in the first set and cruised to the first set 6-1.
The second set also saw the same story as they, courtesy of couple of break points, gained went on to take a 5-2 lead and close out the match 6-2.
--IANS
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