Melbourne, Jan 19 (IANS) India’s Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina moved into the second round of the Australian Open women’s doubles with an easy win over Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and Alexandra Panova of Russia in the first round here Thursday.
The sixth-seeded Indo-Russian pair took just 50 minutes in disposing of their opponents 6-0, 6-2. Sania and Vesnina made just two unforced errors as they strolled to a convincing win.
Sania and Vesnina, who finished runners-up in the French Open last year, will face Czech-Italian pairing of Eva Birnerova and Alberta Brianti in the second round.
In the men’s draw, top seeds Bryan brothers of the US, Bob and Mike, defeated the Isreali pair of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 7-6 (8), 6-4.
The American twins have been the World No.1 doubles players for over 270 weeks, which is longer than anyone else in doubles history. The Americans have won the Australian Open five-times and will play the Aussie pairing of Lleyton Hewitt and Peter Luczak in the second round.
Fourth seeded Indian team of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna will play Australian Carsten Ball and the Philippines’ Treat Conrad Huey in the second round.