After a dismal Rio Olympics 2016 performance, Indian tennis stars Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna started their US Open outing on a grand style. They have won the respective opening round matches at Flushing Meadows.
In the first round of Men’s doubles match, Bopanna along with his Danish counterpart Frederik Nielsen won his first match (Score: 6-3, 6-7 (3), 6-3) by beating 16th seeds Radek Stepanek and Nenad Zimonjic. The whole play lasted for over 1 hour and 53 minutes to seal the victory at Court 6.
Meanwhile, seventh seeds Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Barbora Strycova defeated unseeded American players Jada Myii Hart and Ena Shibahara in straight sets (6-2, 6-3). If you look at the way Mirza won, it was smooth in a comfortable fashion compared to Men’s doubles.
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Comfortable win for Paes
In the meantime, long-time veteran Paes and his mixed doubles partner Martina Hingis had a great limelight at the center court. They also won their first match comfortably in two sets (6-3, 6-2) against American players Sachia Vickery and Frances Tiafoe.
Beating tough opponent is a real thrill
Bopanna-Nielsen played against tough and experienced opponents of Czech-Serbian players. However, they started comfortably to win the first set 6-3. Stepanek-Zimonjic employed all kind of tactics to claim the second set in a tie-break to level the match. However, Bopanna and his partner maintained patience to win the deciding match 6.3.
Breakpoint conversion proved crucial
Bopanna and his partner managed to convert four out of eight break points. Their opponents only won 2 from 9, which resulted in the win of both players. With this win, both of them moved to the second round, where they will meet US-New Zealand combination of Brian Baker and Marcus Daniell for a spot in the pre-quarterfinals.
Easy win for Sania and Paes
Talking about Sania’s game, the whole game lasted for an hour and nine minutes to claim victory at Court 4. They had to face a total of five breakpoints throughout the match and they converted three of them to win. Meanwhile, Paes, who is known for his artistic style finished off the match in grand style in 51 minutes.