The second seeded Indo-Australia pair got the better of their unseeded rivals 6-2 6-7(5) 10-5 in the opening round of the USD 220,000 clay court event.
It took Sania and Rodionova one hour and 27 minutes to down the Greek-Slovakian combination.
After dropping serve in the 11th game of the second set, Sania and Rodionova broke back immediately to push the issue to a tie-breaker but could not stop their rivals from drawing parity in the match.
However, they did better in the match tie-breaker to seal the match.
Sania and Rodionova will now take on the winner of the other first round match between the pairs of Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino/ Anabel Medina Garrigues and Lindsay Lee-Waters/Megan Moulton-Levy.
Rodionova had beaten Sania in the 2010 Commonwealth Games women's singles final. PTI AT
