French Open: Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis pair advance to second round

The top-seeded pair started strongly, but faced stiff competition from the Russians.

Paris: World No.1 women`s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis got their French Open campaign off to a winning start as the duo stormed into the second round here on Wednesday.

The top seeds defeated Russian pair of Darya Kasatkina and Alexandra Panova 7-6 (4), 6-2 in one hour and 31 minutes in the first round.

The Indo-Swiss pair began the match on a positive note, taking a vital 5-0 lead over the Russian pair in the first set.

But a couple of unforced errors and losing two successive serves handed Darya-Alexandra the advantage as they staged a remarkable comeback to make it 5-5 in the first set.

From there on it came down to 6-6 and the Indo-Swiss pair held their nerves to win the tie-breaker 7-4 to grab the first set.

The first set win proved as a confidence booster for the top seeds as Sania-Martina, courtesy of a couple of aces and powerful forehand shots, took an important 4-2 lead in the second set.

There was no looking back for them as they went on to win the next two games and the second set 6-2 and enter the second round in style.