The duo of Sharan and Sitek won their first-round Australian Open match in straight sets of 6-4, 7-5 against Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa.
Rohan Bopanna file image. (Photo: Kuntal Chakrabarty/IANS)
Indian tennis player Divij Sharan advanced into the second round of the doubles event with his New Zealand partner Artem Sitak in the ongoing Australian Open on Wednesday. While Rohan Bopanna, partnering Yasutaka Uchiyama, lost the opening round match against Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan.
The duo of Sharan and Sitek won their opening round match in straight sets of 6-4, 7-5 against Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa on Wednesday. The pair won 69 per cent 1st serve points and hit 27 winners to get their campaign going in the first Grand Slam of the year.
Bopanna and Uchiyama lost 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 against the Bryan brothers to get knocked out of the doubled event from this year’s Australian Open.
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India’s Sania Mirza, who won the Hobart International title last week, will team up with Ukrainian Nadiia Kichenok. They will open their campaign in this year’s first majors with their first-round women’s doubles match against Chinese pair of Xinyun Han and Lin Zhu on Thursday.
Defending men’s singles champion Novak Djokovic, on the other hand, was at his lethal best to defeat Tatsuma Ito in straight sets. The world number two won the match against his Japanese opponent 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 at the Rod Laver Arena in just 95 minutes.
This was the 901st tour-level win for the Serbian as he qualified for the Australian Open third round for the 13th time in the past 14 appearances. His 900th victory had come against Jan-Lennard Struff two days ago.
Later in the day, world number three Roger Federer will take to the court for his second-round match against Filip Krajinovic of Russia. The world number one and top-seeded played this year in Melbourne Rafael Nadal will play his second-round tie with Argentine player Federico Delbonis tomorrow.
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