Sania-Hingis, Bopanna-Mergea advance in Rome Masters

Indian tennis players Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza won their respective matches at the Rome Masters to progress in the outdoor clay court tournament. [caption id=“attachment_1814025” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] World No.1 Sania and Martina were broken four times in the match. Reuters[/caption] The Indo-Romanian pair of Bopanna and Florin Mergea, who last week won the Madrid Open, notched a straight sets win over Argentineans Leonardo Mayer and Juan Monaco. Bopanna and Mergea won 6-3, 6-4 in an hour and three minutes to proceed to the men’s doubles second round on Wednesday. Bopanna and Mergea will take on Dutch-Romanian third seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau next up for a place in the quarterfinals, to be played at the Foro Italico. Earlier on Tuesday, Indo-Swiss combine of Sania and Martina Hingis notched a straight sets win over Romanian pair of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu to enter the women’s doubles quarterfinals. The top seeds took just one hour and three minutes to win the second round match 6-4, 6-1. World No.1 Sania and Martina were broken four times in the match but won seven break points to their advantage. They totally dominated their Romanian opponents by winning 58 of the 94 points played. IANS