Indian stars Sania Mirza and Leander Paes made winning starts in their respective doubles events even as another veteran Mahesh Bhupathi bowed out with a first-round loss at the US Open here.
Sania and her Chinese partner cruised into the second round of the women's doubles event after they easily saw off the challenge of German Annika Beck and Puerto Rican Monica Puig in straight sets, winning 6-2 6-2 on court 16 of the USTA National Tennis Center yesterday.
The 10th seeds will play the Hungarian-American combine of Katalin Marosi and Megan Moulton-Levy.
Sania and Zheng come to Flushing Meadows high on confidence after winning the New Haven title last week.
Paes paired up with Radek Stepanek and breezed through to the second round of men's doubles event with a straight set win over the unseeded pair of Jarkko Nieminen and Dmitry Tursunov. The scoreline read 6-4 7-6 (7-4) at the end of the game.
The 4th seeded pair displayed attacking net game and winners, and looked to have full control over the game from the word go.
The Finnish-Russian pair played some fine tennis in the second set, and a few unforced error from the seasoned campaigners saw the game go into the tie-breaker. But Paes and his partner held their nerve to take the game in straight sets.
However, it was curtains for Bhupathi and his men's doubles partner Philipp Petzschner of Germany as they lost 6-3 7-6 (7-4) to the seeded pair of Daniel Nestor and Vasek Pospisil of Canada.
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