Leander Paes-Martina Hingis, Sania Mirza-Ivan Dodig pairs ease into 2016 French Open pre-quarters

Both Mirza and Paes made winning starts in mixed-doubles with their respective partners.

New Delhi: Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and his mixed-doubles partner Martina Hingis cruised into the second round of the 2016 French Open tournament at Paris on Thursday. Later in the day, second seeded pair of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig of Croatia eased past French duo of Mathilde Johansson and Tristan Lamasine in their opener.

The Indo-Swiss duo defeated Germany and Colombian pair of Anna-Lena Gronefeld and Robert Farah 6-4, 6-4 in just one hour and eight minutes in the first round at Roland Garros.

The experienced pair was broken for a 0-2 deficit in the first set, but responded strongly by breaking the German-Colombian pair twice in the third and fifth game.

But the second set was a smooth sell for the Indo-Swiss pair, as only a break — in the third game — was required to wrap up the match.

A second round defeat at Roland Garros last season, eluded the celebrated pair a Grand Slam. They won Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open.

They will now face either fourth-seed pair of Yaroslava Shvedova and Florin Mergea for a spot in the quarterfinals.

The Kazakh-Romanian pair defeated Czech Republic-Polish pair of Lucie Hradecka and Marcin Matkowski 6-4,6-4 later today.

Sania and Dodig beat Johansson and Lamasine 6-4 6-3, and they next face the winner of the match between France's Aliz Cornet and Jonathan Eysseric and British-Canadian pair of Johanna Konta and Daniel Nestor.