Sania Mirza entered the mixed doubles second round with a new partner, but the Mahesh Bhupahti-Rohan Bopanna combo made a shock first-round exit from the men’s doubles event of the US Open here.
Sania ended her successful partnership with Bhupahti in the mixed doubles circuit after being “sacrificed” by the veteran in the infamous Olympic selection row in July.
And the tennis player from Hyderabad made a fresh start with Englishman Colin Fleming when the duo defeated the British—American combination of Andrea Petkovic and Eric Butorac 6-2 7-6 (5).
Sania and Fleming will now be up against winners of the match between Americans Melanie Oudin and Jack Sock and the fifth-seeded Slovak-Serbian pair of Katarina Srebotnik and Nenad Zimonjic.
In men’s doubles, Bhupathi and Bopanna, who have been dumped from the Indian Davis Cup team for revolting against the All India Tennis Assoiation before the Olympics, were shown the door in the first round itself.
The eighth-seeded Indian team was defeated 3-6 6-7 (4) by unseeded Australians Matthew Ebden and Bernard Tomic.
But Leander Paes sailed into the second round with Czech partner Radek Stepanek. The fifth-seeded team outplayed the unseeded German duo of Dustin Brown and Christopher Kas 6-3 6-3.