Paes, Sania advance at US Open

Indian tennis aces Leander Paes and Sania Mirza progressed to the second round of their respective categories with straight sets victories at the US Open here.

While Paes progressed to the men's doubles second round with Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, women's doubles top seeds Sania and Swiss Martina Hingis eased into Round 2 on the hard courts of Flushing Meadows on Thursday.

Paes and Verdasco needed just an hour and two minutes on Court 4 to beat German pair of Florian Mayer and Frank Moser 6-2, 6-3.

The first set was easy for the Indo-Spaniard combine who gave two breakpoint opportunities but saved both. However, in return they also got two chances and converted both to win the first set in eight games and half an hour.

The second set was a tighter contest than the scoreline suggests. But Paes and Verdasco converted the only breakpoint chance they got to win the set and match.

They will next take on American pair of Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey who ousted top seeds and multiple Grand Slam champions Bob and Mike Bryan.

Later in the day, Sania and Martina took out American pair of Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria 6-1, 6-2 in 56 minutes on Court 7.

The top seeds proved to be too strong from Kaitlyn and Sabrina who gave away as many as six breakpoints. Sania and Martina broke them thrice to pocket the first set.

The Americans fought back strongly to win two breakpoints in the second set. But the Indo-Swiss combination broke back twice more to win the set and proceed to the second round where they will take on Swiss-Chinese Taipei pair of Timea Bacsinszky and Chia-Jung Chuang.