Australian Open: Sania Mirza, Anna Danilina win women’s doubles opening round

• Sania Mirza defeated Danilina in  women’s doubles first round.
• The Indo-Kazakh duo beat Anhelina and Alison Van.
• Yuki and Saketh  lost to John Peers and Andrea Mies.

Sania Mirza, an accomplished tennis player from India who was competing in her final Grand Slam event, began her Australian Open run on Thursday by defeating Anna Danilina of Kazakhstan in the women’s doubles first round.

Anhelina Kalinina and Alison Van Uytvanck, a Ukrainian-Belgian couple, were upset by the Indo-Kazakh duo 6-2, 7-5. On Friday, Sania and Anna will compete against the Belgian-Ukrainian team of Anhelina Kalinina and Alison Van Uytvanck.

The Dubai Tennis Championships, a WTA 1000 competition that starts on February 19, will be the last professional tennis match for the former No. 1 women’s doubles player in the world, who made the announcement earlier this month.

Sania has won six major championships, including the Australian Open mixed doubles trophy in 2009 with Mahesh Bhupathi. She has won three doubles championships and three mixed doubles championships.

She teamed up with Swiss icon Martina Hingis in 2015, winning three consecutive Grand Slam doubles championships with her. The pair’s first Grand Slam victory was at Wimbledon that same year.

The Indian men’s doubles wildcards Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni, who were playing in their first Grand Slam together as a combination, fell to the 14th seeds John Peers of Australia and Andrea Mies of Germany 6-7(5), 7-6(4), 3-6.

Another men’s pair, Stefanos Tsitsipas and their brother Petros, defeated Ramkumar Ramanathan and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela in three sets, 6-3, 5-7, and 3-6.

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