Indians enjoy a productive day

Sixth-seeded Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi kicked off their mixed doubles campaign in the Australian Open with a comfortable victory over South African Natalie Grandin and Jean-Julien Rojer of Curacao on Friday.

Sixth-seeded Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi kicked off their mixed doubles campaign in the Australian Open with a comfortable victory over South African Natalie Grandin and Jean-Julien Rojer of Curacao here on Friday.

Sania-Mirza--and-Mahesh-Bhupathi-chat-while-playing-against-Natalle-Grandin-of-South-Africa-and-Jean-Julien-Rojer-of-Curacao-in-their-mixed-doubles-match-on-day-five-of-the-2012-Australian-Open-tennis-tournament-in-Melbourne-AFP-Photo-Findlay-Kember

The Indian duo, winners here in 2009, took just 62 minutes in knocking out their first round opponents 6-4, 6-2. Sania and Bhupathi made just one unforced error and got an impressive 71 % of their first serves in.

Another Indian, Rohan Bopanna teamed up with American Lisa Raymond to thrash Kazakh-Austrian pair of Galina Voskoboeva and Alexander Peya 6-1, 6-0.

Raymond had partnered Indian veteran Leander Paes earlier in her career, and the duo had won the 1999 Wimbledon and finished runner-up in the 2001 US Open.

In the men's doubles, Paes teamed up with Czech Radek Stepanek to cap off a perfect day for the Indians as the pair completed their consecutive straight set victory beating Italians Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 6-2, 7-6(7-5).