Australian Open: Bhupathi-Petrova enter second round

Melbourne -Mahesh Bhupathi with Russian partner Nadia Petrova entered the mixed doubles second round at the Australian Open, defeating Anastasia Rodionova and Jean-Julien Roger here Sunday.

The Indo-Russian duo eased past the Australian-Dutch pairing 6-4, 6-2 to join compatriots Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza in the second round. The Indian trio made a winning start with different partners.

Bhupathi-Petrova next play Slovakia’s Katarina Srebotnik and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic.

The fifth seeds completed the task in little over an hour.

Bhupathi-Petrova converted half of their eight break point opportunities while their opponents broke once in seven attempts. Their 34 winners to Srebotnik-Zimonjic’s 10 also made a big difference in the one-sided scoreline.

Bhupathi-Petrova are drawn to play Paes and Russia’s Elena Vesnina in the quarter-finals.

Sania and Bob Bryan meet American duo of Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky for a place in the last eight while Bopanna and her partner from Chinese Taipei partner, Su-Wei Hsieh, face Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Italy’s Fabio Fognini.