Bopanna, Amritraj through to second round

India's Rohan Bopanna and Prakash Amritraj kept their Australian Open hopes alive as they won their respective first round qualifying matches in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Top Indian player Bopanna beat Japan's Gouichi Motomura 6-3, 6-4 while Amritraj quashed a challenge from Hugo Armando of USA 6-4, 7-5 to advance into the second round.

Bopanna will next face USA's Sam Warburg, ranked 172 in the world, and Amritraj takes on exciting 15-year-old German-born-Croatian-Australian Bernard Tomic, who ousted the 25th seed Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of Taiwan 4-6, 7-6 (13), 7-5.

Rajeev Ram, an American player of Indian origin, was also through to the second round. He scored a comfortable 6-3, 6-3 win over Ukraine's Sergiy Stakhovsky and next meets Australia's Carsten Ball.

Pakistan's Aisam Qureshi, seeded 16th, crashed out after a 7-5, 3-6, 3-6 defeat against Swiss Stephane Bohli.