French Open 2016, Day 4: Sania Mirza, Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna enter French Open second round

Paris: India`s tennis stars Sania Mirza, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna got their French Open campaign off to a winning start as the trio won their respective women`s doubles and men`s doubles matches to enter the second round here on Wednesday.

World No.1 women`s doubles pair of Sania and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis defeated the Russian pair of Darya Kasatkina and Alexandra Panova 7-6 (4), 6-2 in one hour and 31 minutes.

India`s Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea outclassed Frenchmen Stephane Robert and Alexandre Sidorenko 6-2, 6-2 in a one-sided encounter in 56 minutes.

India`s Paes and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski defeated Belarusian and Uzbekistani pair of Alexander Bury and Denis Istomin 7-6 (3), 7-6 (6) in one hour 46 minutes.

The top seeds Indo-Swiss pair Sania-Martina began the match on a positive note, taking a vital 5-0 lead over the Russian pair in the first set.

But a couple of unforced errors and losing two successive serves handed Darya-Alexandra the advantage as they staged a remarkable comeback to make it 5-5 in the first set.

From there on it came down to 6-6 and the reigning Wimbledon, US Open, Australian Open champions pair held their nerves to win the tie-breaker 7-4 to grab the first set.

The first set win proved a confidence booster for the top seeds as Sania-Martina, courtesy of a couple of aces and powerful forehand shots, took an important 4-2 lead in the second set.

There was no looking back for them as they went on to win the next two games and the second set 6-2 and enter the second round in style.

On the other hand, the sixth seeded pair Bopanna-Mergea started the first set on a good note, taking a comfortable 5-2 lead over the French pair. From there on it was an easy task for the Indo-Romanian duo to clinch the first set 6-2.

The second set was a replay of the first as Bopanna-Mergea took a 4-1 lead and then grabbed the second set 6-2.

Later on the 16th seeded pair of Paes and Matkowski were on the back foot in the first set standing at 3-5 but came back strongly to level things at 6-6 and then eventually win the tie-breaker 7-3 in a one-sided contest to grab the first set.

In the second set too, despite being 4-3 down, the Indo-Polish pair levelled things once again making it 6-6 and won the tie-breaker yet again by 8-6 to march into the second round.