US Open: Paes-Hingis, Bopanna-Mergea advance; Bryan brothers crash out

New York, US: Indian tennis stars enjoyed a successful start in the US Open as veteran Leander Paes entered the mixed doubles second round while Rohan Bopanna also won his opening tie in the men’s doubles competition.

Paes, alongwith Martina Hingis, eased past the local pair of Taylor Harry Fritz and C Lui 6-2, 6-2 in the first round encounter on Court 4.

The fourth-seeded Indo-Swiss duo took just about 46 minutes to win the match.

Paes and Hingis will next take on the winners of the match between the Canadian-Australian combine of Eugenie Bouchard and Nick Kyrgios and the Ukrainian-Kiwi team of Elina Svitolina and Artem Sitak.

On Court 14, Bopanna combined with Florin Mergea to dispatch the US duo of Austin Krajicek and Nicholas Monroe 6-3, 6-4 in the first-round encounter.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Romanian duo won the match in 1 hour and 7 minutes to ease into the second round.

Bopanna and Mergea will be up against the Polish-Mexican pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez in their next match.

Fyrstenberg and Gonzalez defeated the Polish combination of Tomasz Bednarek and Jerzy Janowicz 6-7 (5) 7-6 (3) 6-4 in their opening match.

In a result that will give a boost to rest of the doubles pairs, top seeds and five-time champions, Mike and Bob Bryan were beaten by compatriots Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey 7-6 (7/4), 5-7, 6-3. The 37-year-old twins, who were the defending champions in New York, have won 16 Grand Slam men’s doubles titles.

Agencies