Leander Paes advances while Rohan Bopanna crashes out of Australian Open

Leander Paes and Martina Hingis strategise in their match against Masa Jovanovic and Sam Thompson

Melbourne, Jan 25 (IANS)

Leander Paes and Martina Hingis entered the mixed douibles second round, while the Indo-Czech combination of Rohan Bopanna and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova faltered in the first round of the Australian Open here Sunday. The Indo-Swiss pair of Paes and Hingis defeated Australian pair of Masa Jovanovic and Sam Thompson 6-2, 7-6(2), as Bopanna-Strycova lost 2-6, 6-3, 4-10 against the French-Canadian third seeded combination of Kristina Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor at Melbourne Park.

The Indo-Swiss mixed doubles pair of Paes and Hingis registered an easy win in the first set 6-2. They were pushed in the second set, but managed to win it 7-6(2).

Paes-Hingis fired 21 winners to get the better of Jovanovic-Thompson, who managed only 15. Paes-Hingis made only nine unforced winners as compared to 21 by their opponents.

In the second round, Paes-Hingis will take on Spanish combination of A. Medina Garrigues and Pablo Andujar.

In the junior girls doubles first round, the Indo-Thai pair of Ojasvinee Singh and Tamachan Momkoonthod lost 3-6, 7-6 (2), 9-11 to Uzbekistan's Djurabeck Karimov and Tung-Lin Wu of Chinese Taipei.