Sania-Strycova ease into second round

Indian Wells, March 10: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic eased into the second round of the BNP Paribas Open after defeating German-Latvian duo of Julia Goerges and Jele Ostapenko 6-3, 6-4 here.

The fourth seeded Indo-Czech pair, who came together in 2016, consumed just over an hour and 15 minutes after staving off four of eight possible break points from their opponents on Thursday night. Goerges and Ostapenko were broken six times during the tie.

Sania and Strycova will now play Italy’s Sara Errani and Alicja Rosolka of Poland.

In men’s doubles, India’s Rohan Bopan, who has partnered Pablo Cuevas at Indian Wells, will take on the all-Serbian combine of Novak Djokovic and Viktor Troicki later on Friday. ians