World No. 2 Sania Mirza and her partner Ivan Dodig won their first round mixed doubles encounter against defending champions Laura Siegemund and Mate Pavic 7-5, 6-4 in the Australian Open on Saturday. Seeded second in the draw, Mirza and Dodig played an aggressive brand of tennis and raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set. However, Siegemund and Pavic staged a comeback to make it 5-5. Mirza and Dodig then upped the ante to win the set 7-5. The second set was an easy affair, as the Indo-Croatian pair won it 6-4 to progress to round two of the tournament.
Earlier in the day, Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski of Canada advanced to the second round as well with a win over Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia and New Zealand’s Michael Venus. The unseeded pair won 6-4, 7-6 (5), 10-7 and will face fifth seeds Lukasz Kubot of Poland and Yung-Jan Chan of Taipei next.
