Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 19: Tennis player Sania Mirza from India easily advanced to the second round of the Australian Open, her final Grand Slam match in Melbourne on Thursday.
In the women’s doubles, Sania and her Kazakh partner Anna Danilina defeated Hungary’s Dalma Galfi and America’s Bernarda Pera 6-2, 7-5, in one hour and fifteen minutes. The pair won the first set in less than 25 minutes and held a 4-1 lead in the second before Galfi and Pera won four straight games to even the score at five.
However, the Indo-Kazakh team was able to break Pera’s serve, while Danilina held on to her own to resolve the matter and set up a matchup with Alison Van Uytvanck and Anhelina Kalinina in the next round.
The 36-year-old Indian, a six-time Major champion (three in doubles and three in mixed doubles), has declared that the Australian Open will be her last and that she will retire following the WTA 1000 Dubai Tennis Championships, which begin on February 19.
Ramkumar Ramanathan and the men’s doubles team of Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni both lost their individual matches and were eliminated in the first round.
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The Tsitsipas brothers, Stefanos and Petros, defeated Ramkumar and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela 6-3 5-7 3-6 after squandering their first-set advantage.
The Australian-German team of Andreas Mies and John Peers defeated wildcard entries Bhambri and Myneni 6-7 7-6 6-3 in a two and a half hour match.
Bhambri and Myneni, who were playing together for the first time at a Grand Slam, held off two match points in the second set to force a tiebreaker. They continued on to gain a 3-1 lead, but their season was ultimately over due to too many unforced errors.
