Mahesh Bhupathi with Russian partner Nadia Petrova entered the mixed doubles second round at the Australian Open, defeating Anastasia Rodionova and Jean-Julien Roger.
The Indo-Russian duo eased past the Australian-Dutch pairing 6-4, 6-2 to join compatriots Leander Paes, Rohan Bopanna and Sania Mirza in the second round. The Indian trio made a winning start with different partners.
Bhupathi-Petrova next play Slovakia's Katarina Srebotnik and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic. The fifth seeds completed the task in little over an hour.Bhupathi-Petrova converted half of their eight break point opportunities while their opponents broke once in seven attempts.
Their 34 winners to Srebotnik-Zimonjic's 10 also made a big difference in the one-sided scoreline.
If Bhupathi and Paes win their respective next matches, they will clash in the quarter-finals.
{{/usCountry}}If Bhupathi and Paes win their respective next matches, they will clash in the quarter-finals.
{{/usCountry}}Paes and his Russian partner Elena Vesnina, seeded second, will clash with the Australian team of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden.
The unseeded pair of Bopanna and Su-Wei Hsieh are set to take on Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Fabio Fognini of Italy. Third seeds Sania and Bob Bryan will clash with the American team of Abigail Spears and Scott Lipsky.