Key Points
Bopanna and Zhang Shuai secure dominant first-round mixed doubles victory
Indo-Chinese pair break opponents twice in opening set
Consistent serving helps them clinch 6-4, 6-4 win
Competing on the hard courts at Melbourne Park, Bopanna and Zhang Shuai defeated French tennis player Kristina Mladenovic and Croatia's Ivan Dodig 6-4, 6-4 in the first round of the season-opening tennis Grand Slam.
The Indo-Chinese pair burst out of the blocks, breaking their opponents twice to race to a 3-0 lead in the opening set. Although Mladenovic and Dodig clawed back with a break of their own, Bopanna and Shuai held the rest of their serves to secure the set.
Neither pair held their serves in the first four games of the second set. However, Bopanna and Shuai teamed up to break Mladenovic in the seventh game.
Bopanna, who reached the mixed doubles semi-finals at Rio 2016 alongside Sania Mirza, served the last game of the match to secure a safe passage to the next round. Bopanna reached the Australian Open final with Sania Mirza in 2023.
The Indian tennis player also competed in the men's doubles event at the Australian Open with Colombian partner Nicolas Barrientos. However, the duo went down to Spain's Pedro Martinez and Jaume Munar in the opening round.
India's N Sriram Balaji and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela will take on the Portuguese pair of Nuno Borges and Francisco Cabral on Saturday in the men's doubles. They defeated Netherlands' Robin Haase and Aleksandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan in the first round on Thursday,
In singles, India's campaign ended after Sumit Nagal went down to Czechia's Tomas Machac in the first round.
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