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Santina begin title defence in style; Bopanna wins

Last updated on: July 03, 2016 00:58 IST

IMAGE: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis celebrate their first round victory at Wimbledon. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images.

Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis started their Wimbledon doubles title defence in style after brushing aside German rivals Anna-Lena Friedsam and Laura Siegemund 6-2, 7-5 to advance into the second round.

The top seed pair will now play Japanese pair Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato, who defeated Mona Barthel of Germany and Chia-Jung Chuang of Chinese Taipei in their first round match.

IMAGE: Rohan Bopanna (left) and Florin Mergea celebrate. Photograph: Clive Brunskill/Getty Images.

Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea advanced to the pre-quarterfinals of the rain-hit Wimbledon Championships after a straight set win over Andrej Martin and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo in London on Saturday.

The sixth seeded Indo-Romanian pair faced early resistance from the Slovakian-Chile combination before prevailing 7-5 6-2 in the second round contest that lasted one hour and 17 minutes.

Bopanna and Mergea saved eight of the nine breakpoints they faced in the match and broke their rivals four times.

Bopanna could face Leander Paes in the next match if the 43-year-old and his Polish partner Marcin Matkowski get the better of Henri Kontinen and John Peers.

Paes and Bopanna will play as a team in India's upcoming Davis Cup tie against Korea and then at Rio Games.