On a good day for Indian tennis, Sania Mirza and the men’s doubles pair of Ramkumar Ramanathan and Rohan Bopanna emerged victorious in their respective first round matches in the ATP and WTA tournaments on Tuesday.
The Adelaide event is a tune-up for the Australian Open, starting on January 17 in Melbourne.
Sania and Nadiia Kichenok, her Ukrainian partner in women’s doubles, overcame a first-set thrashing to knock out second-seeds Gabriella Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos 1-6 6-3 10-8 in the WTA 500 event.
In the ATP 250 men’s event, Ramkumar and veteran Bopanna, pairing up together for the first time on the ATP tour, had an easy day out. They trounced American Jamie Cerretani and Brazilian Fernando Romboli 6-2 6-1 to set up a pre-quarterfinal bout with the 8th seeded American pair of Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow.
“We had a good match. Both of us served And returned well. We combined well and stuck to the plan,” Ramkumar said.
In March 2022, when India hosts Denmark on grass in New Delhi in their next Davis Cup tie, Bopanna and Ramkumar could well be seen to pair up for the doubles.
Ramkumar played the Dane top singles seed Holger Rune in the singles qualifiers and had lost 4-6 6-7(7). Rune, ranked 103 in the world, had qualified for the main draw.
