Melbourne: Sania Mirza and Bob Bryan began their partnership with a convincing straight-set victory over Australian pair of Samantha Stosur and Luke Saville in the mixed doubles first round of the Australian Open, here on Friday.
The third seeded Indo-American pair coasted to a 6-2, 6-2 win over the unseeded local team in just 50 minutes.
Sania and left-handed Bob, one of the most successful doubles player the game has seen along with his brother Mike, converted all three break points and saved two chances on their own in the opening set to surge ahead.
In the second set, the third seeds converted two of the three chances and saved one breakpoint to seal the win.
They next face winners of the other first round match between the pairs of Abigail Spears/Scott Lipsky and Raquel Kops-Jones/Treat Conrad Huey.
Other Indians featuring in the mixed doubles draw are Mahesh Bhupathi, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes.
Bhupathi has paired with Russian Nadia Petrova and they take on Australia`s Anastasia Rodionova and Jean-Julien Rojer of the Netherlands in their first round.
Paes is also teaming up with a Russian, Elena Vesnina and the second seed team will clash with Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden and Pakistan`s Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi.
Bopanna and his Taipei partner Su-Wei Hsieh face Australia`s Ashleigh Barty and American Jack Sock.
PTI
First Published: Friday, January 18, 2013, 18:10