Bopanna, Zhang Advance Into Mixed Doubles Round Two Of Australian Open

Indian ace Rohan Bopanna and his Chinese partner Shuai Zhang advanced to the second round of the Australian Open mixed doubles with a commanding 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ivan Dodig and Kristina Mladenovic in Melbourne on Friday. Aiming to recover from an early exit in the men's doubles, the former world No.

1 Indian showed his mettle alongside Zhang, delivering a clinical performance to close our the match in one hour and 12 minutes. Bopanna and Zhang will face the winners of the match between fourth seeded pair of American Taylor Townsend and Hugo Nys of Monegasque and wild card Australian duo of Maddison Inglis and Jason Kuber in the pre-quarterfinals.

The Indo-Chinese pair started strong, racing to a 3-0 lead in the opening set. Though Croatian Dodig and Frenchwoman Mladenovic broke Zhang's serve to narrow the gap to 3-2, Bopanna held firm under pressure, serving out the set at 6-4.