Mahesh Bhupathi put behind his shock first-round exit from the men's doubles event by advancing to the mixed doubles second round, while Sania Mirza and her women's doubles partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands also cleared the first hurdle in the US Open. Bhupathi's successful partnership with Sania in the mixed doubles circuit ended after he "sacrificed" her in the infamous Olympic selection row in July, says a report in the Times Of India.
The veteran along with his new partner, Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic, beat the American combo of Mitchell Krueger and Samantha Crawford on Thursday. It took the sixth-seeded Indo-Czech pair just 57 minutes to outplay their unseeded opponents 6-2, 6-4.
According to a report in DNA, Sania Mirza of India and her American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands, seeded 13th, advanced to the second round of the women's doubles at the US Open here at the Flushing Meadows. The pair thrashed Italian Alberta Brianti and Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-1, 6-1 in 59 minutes on Thursday. They will next face unseeded Croat-Hungarian duo of Darija Jurak-Katalin Marosi.
Meanwhile, Sania Mirza yesterday insisted that she and Mahesh Bhupathi remained firm friends despite their decision to split as a mixed doubles tea, says a report in Mid-Day. The duo, who have won two Grand Slam titles (2009 Australian Open & 2010 French Open) together, have gone their separate ways at the US Open following the bitter build-up and fall-out from the Olympic Games.
“We are still good friends. We have a great relationship and we are not going to spoil that over mixed doubles. Everything is fine. We even went to the movies this week to see a couple of films,” Mirza told AFP yesterday.
