The top seeded team in the women's draw opened play at the Australian Open on Thursday with a simple win. Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza cruised past Mariana Duque-Mariño and Teliana Pereira 6-2, 6-3 to advance to the second round. The win was their 31st straight dating back to last year's U.S. Open.
Hingis-Mirza Can't Stop, Won't Stop
The top seeds continued to do what they do best in their first round match in Melbourne; find solutions and win matches. Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza did not "wow" with their final statistics, but the result was a rather lopsided 6-2, 6-3 win over Mariana Duque-Marino and Teliana Pereira. The top seeds were able to break the serves of their opponents three times in the opening set, including the decisive 8th game. Hingis-Mirza were aggressive with 14 winners and steady enough to save three of the four break points they offered. The second set was a sloppy affair that featured seven breaks of serve. As they often do though, Hingis-Mirza wound up on the right end of that "wrong" statistic by converting four breaks against Duque-Marino and Pereira to offset their three broken service games. Hingis-Mirza won an astounding 67 percent of the points off of their opponents' serves in the final set. The top seeds face the Kichenok sisters in round two.
WTA First Round: Most Seeds Roll
Of the seeded teams in action on Thursday, just three of 11 were upset victims. All top four seeds are headed to the second round. The second seeded Chan sisters walloped Denisa Allertova and Demi Schuurs 6-1, 6-1. The match lasted just 45 minutes with the Chans winning 68 percent of the points off of Allertova and Schuurs' serves. Third seeded French tandem Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia triumphed in their opener 6-3, 6-2 against María Irigoyen and María-Teresa Torró-Flor. Fourth seeds Katarina Srebotnik and Timea Babos eased past Vera Dushevina and Katerina Siniakova 6-3, 7-5. Srebotnik-Babos tallied 27 winners against just 11 unforced errors. Other seeds advancing on Thursday included (5) Elena Vesnina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, (6) Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears, (10) Anabel Medina Garrigues and Aranxta Parra Santonja and (15) Yi-Fan Xu and Saisai Zheng.
The three seeded teams given the boot in round one were the 9th seeds Irina-Carmella Begu and Monica Niculescu. They were taken down in three sets by Kirsten Flipkens and Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 3-6, 6-4. Eighth seeds Lara Arruabarrena and Andreja Klepac were stunned by the Rodionova sisters 6-0, 6-4. The Australian duo won four of 12 break points and 80 percent of their service points in the upset win. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Roberta Vinci crafted the final seeded upset as they ousted 14th seeds Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson 6-2, 3-6, 6-2.
Unseeded teams who won on Thursday included Margarita Gasparyan and Alexandra Panova. They defeated Zarina Diyas and Kai-Lin Zhang 6-2, 6-4. Americas Varvara Lepchenko and Irina Falconi survived in three sets over Alison Bai and Naiktha Bains 6-2, 6-4. Belinda Bencic and Magdalena Rybarikova were victorious in round one as they beat Tammi Patterson and Olivia Rogowska 6-4, 7-5. Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva teamed up for a straight sets win over Chin-Wei Chan and Kurumi Nara 6-1, 6-4. Su-Wei Hsieh and Oksana Kalashnikova ran away from Misaki Doi and Nao Hibino in a final set tiebreak. The final score was 6-2, 2-6, 7-6 (0).
ATP First Round: Seeds Perfect 10 for 10 on Thursday
All ten seeded men's teams in action in Thursday's opening round of play have moved into round two. Top seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Horia Tecau rallied in the opening set against Sergiy Stakhovsky and Martin Klizan to turn a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 set win. Rojer-Tecau would find the second set much easier as they rolled 6-2. They were rock solid on their break point conversions as they broke Stakhovsky-Klizan four of the six times they had a chance. Elsewhere, the third seed Bryans, Bob and Mike, began their stay in Melbourne with an opening round win over Chris Guccione and Andre Sa. The Bryans were back to their trademark tight serving as they won 40 of 42 first serve points in the 7-5, 7-6 (4) victory. They did not allow for a single break point off their serves.
Fourth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea overcame a raucous Australian crowd at Hisense Arena in their match. Bopanna-Mergea battled Aussies Nick Kyrgios and Omar Jasika. The first set saw five breaks of serve with the 4th seeds coming up with the clinching break in the 12th game to edge the opener 7-5. Their nerves seemed more settled in the second as they held serve easier and then broke Kyrgios-Jasika in the 8th game for a 5-3 lead. They would close the match out for the 7-5, 6-3 win. Defending U.S. Open doubles champions Nicolas Mahut and Pierre-Hugues Herbert got away to a perfect start in round one as they blasted Nicholas Monroe and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo 6-1, 6-4. The win helped Mahut celebrate his 34th birthday with a needed win after a tough straight sets loss in singles to Gael Monfils.
Thursday's Other Men's First Round Results
(7)J.Murray-Soares def. Marray-Qureshi 6-3, 6-4
(9) Peers-Kontinen def. Saville-Smith 6-3, 7-5
(10)Kubot-Matkowski def. GarciaLopez-Marrero 6-1, 6-7 (5), 6-3
(11) Inglot-Lindstedt def. Betov-Gabshvili 6-3, 6-4
(15) M.Lopez-F.Lopez def. Munoz de la Nava-Ramos-Vinolas 6-4, 6-3
(16) Cuevas-Granollers def. Dolgopolov-Tursunov 6-2, 6-2
Fyrstenberg-Janowicz def. Delbonis-Duran 6-4, 7-5
Butorac-Lipsky def. Oswald-Shamsdin 6-4, 7-5
Krajicek-D.Young def. Pavic-Venus 6-3, 6-4
Cecchinato-Seppi def. Roger-Vasselin-Benneteau 6-3, 7-6 (6)
Marach-Martin def. Kudla-Baker 6-1, 6-2