Australian Open 2017 Day 3: The first grand slam tournament started off on a good note for the representatives of India as players from the subcontinent got off to a good start in the third day of the Australian Open. Australian Open Day 3 saw Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna make winning starts to their respective campaigns with contrasting opening-round victories with their doubles partners, in Melbourne on Wednesday igniting hopes of yet another grand slam title for the Indian participants.
Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova started their Australian Open campaign by defeating Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith of the United Kingdom with a straight set 6-3, 6-1 victory in a 60-minute matchup breaking the British player thrice in the second set. The doubles duo emerged victorious in the Apia International tennis tournament in Sydney in warm-up to the Australian Open in Melbourne. Mirza, who won the Australian Open 2016 doubles title with Martina Hingis last year will look forward to replicate her performance from last time with her new partner aiming for another grand slam title. The Indo-Czech duo will face the winner of the match between Kimberly Birrell-Priscilla Hon and Samantha Stosur-Shuai Zhang.
On the other hand, Rohan Bopanna and his partner Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay, seeded 15th, triumphed over Thomaz Bellucci from Brazil and Maximo Gonzalez from Argentina 6-4 7-6(4) in the men’s doubles first round setting up a matchup against Australia’s Alex Bolt and Bradley Mousley in the second round of the Australian Open 2017. Other Indian pairs yet to take the field later on Australian Open Day 3 are Purav Raja and Divij Sharan will open their men’s doubles campaign against French team of Jonathan Eysseric and Fabrice Martin. Also, Leander Paes and his new partner Andre Sa are up against 10th seeds Treat Huey and Max Mirnyi, the same pairing they triumphed over at the Auckland ATP event last week.
