Bopanna, Zhang advance into Round 2

Melbourne: Indian ace Rohan Bopanna and his Chinese partner Shuai Zhang advanced to the second round of the Australian Open mixed doubles with a commanding 6-4 6-4 victory over Ivan Dodig and Kristina Mladenovic here on Friday.

Aiming to recover from an early exit in the men’s doubles, the former world No. 1 Indian showed his mettle alongside Zhang, delivering a clinical performance to close our the match in one hour and 12 minutes.