Miami Open: Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis advance to second round, Rohan Bopanna-Florin Mergea ousted

Miami: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis clinched a facile opening win in the women’s doubles draw but Rohan Bopanna was knocked out of the men’s doubles event in the Miami Open tennis tournament. Top seeds Mirza and Hingis took merely an hour to outplay Lara Arruabarrena of Spain and Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-0 6-4. The Indo-Swiss pair will face either Monica Puig/Heather Watson or Vania King/Alla Kudryavtseva in the next round. [caption id=“attachment_2605930” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis. Getty Images[/caption] Mirza and Hingis are the defending champions as they overcame a sluggish start to take the title with a 7-5 6-1 scoreline against second seeded Russian team of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina last year. However, Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea bowed out after squandering a position of strength to go down 6-2 4-6 4-10 the Uruguayan-Spanish combination of Pablo Cuevas and Marcel Granollers. The sixth seeded Indo-Romanian pair slogged for an hour and nine minutes before ending up on the losing side. PTI