Indian tennis ace Rohan Bopanna and his Chinese partner Shuai Zhang cruised to the second round of the ongoing Australian Open mixed doubles with a straight sets 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ivan Dodig and Kristina Mladenovic on Friday (Jan 17).
Bopanna and Zhang closed the match in one hour and 12 minutes. Bopanna, who had suffered an early exit from the men's doubles competition earlier, had reached the mixed doubles final with Sania Mirza in 2023.
Bopanna and Zhang will face the winners of the match between the fourth-seeded pair of American Taylor Townsend and Hugo Nys of Monegasque and wild card Australian duo of Maddison Inglis and Jason Kuber in the pre-quarterfinals.
Earlier, India’s N Sriram Balaji and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela progressed to the second round of the Australian Open 2025 men’s doubles category.
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Meanwhile, the all-Indian pair of Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and Vijay Sundar Prashanth failed to progress as they went down to Gregoire Jacq of France and Brazil’s Orlando Luz with a 6-2, 6-2 scoreline.
Meanwhile, Anirudh Chandrasekar and his Polish partner Karol Drzewiecki, who entered the tournament as alternates, put up a strong fight against Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Petros Tsitsipas of Greece before going down 7(7)-6(1), 2-6, 7(10)-6(6).
Alcaraz, Zverev progress to next round
Second-seed Alexander Zverev accelerated his march through the Australian Open on Friday with a straight-sets win over Britain's Jacob Fearnley in the third round.
The 27-year-old German put his foot to the floor at the Margaret Court Arena to sweep past his 92nd-ranked opponent 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 in the match that lasted just over two hours.
Meanwhile, third seed Carlos Alcaraz dropped his first set of the tournament but still safely secured his passage into the fourth round of the Australian Open with a 6-2 6-4 6-7(3) 6-3 victory over Nuno Borges.