Indians had a good outing in their respective doubles matches at the Australian Open on Thursday. All four Indians in action in the men’s doubles won their first round matches.
Leander Paes and Purav Raja breezed through their opening match dispatching the pair of Nikoloz Basilashvili and Andreas Haider-Maurer 6-2, 6-3 in their opener .
However, they will have a tough challenge on hand in the second round when they run into fifth seeds Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. The Brazilian-Scot pair has been of the most consistent teams in the previous season.
Divij Sharan and American Rajeev Ram started their new partnership on a positive note, edging out Marius Copil of Romania and Serbia’s Viktor Troicki 7-6(5), 6-4 in their opening round. While the first set went to a tiebreak, the Indo-American pair sealed it in straight sets. The 16th seeds will face Fabio Fognini and Marcel Granollers in the second round.
Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin, seeded 10th, fought off a late charge from Ryan Harrison and Vasek Pospisil to prevail 6-2, 7-6(5).
Bopanna saved a break chance in the sixth game of the second set to remain unbroken, forcing a tie breaker. Pospisil, who was broken in the sixth game of the opening set, served consecutive double faults in the tie-breaker to hand advantage to Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin.
They will play João Sousa and Leonardo Mayer in the second round.
