Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna-Ramkumar Ramanathan start with wins at Adelaide

The Australian summer swing has begun in full force with some top-notch tennis action already coming our way from Down Under. Beginning the year on the perfect note, ace Indian tennis player Sania Mirza paired up with Nadiia Kichenok for the Adelaide International WTA 500 event and started with a thrilling win against the second-seeded pair of Giuliana Olmos-Gabriela Dobrowski where they came back from a set down, 1-6 6-3 10-8.

Meanwhile, India's top men's doubles player Rohan Bopanna paired up with India's top men's singles player, Ramkumar Ramanathan, and delivered a dominating show at the ATP 250 Adelaide event where they humbled the pair of Fernando Romboli and James Cerretani, 6-2, 6-1.

Sania Mirza, who has been enjoying some quality time back on the tennis court ever since she made a comeback after giving birth to her son, Izhaan, had a beautiful 2021 season as well. The 6-time Grand Slam champion even went on to win the Ostrava Open last year with Chinese partner, Zhang Shuai. With Ukraine's Nadiia Kichenok, Sania had won the 2020 Hobart International on her comeback run as well.

Up against Giuliana Olmos and Gabriela Dobrowski at the Adelaide International, both higher-ranked players, the pair of Sania and Nadiia Kichenok managed to break serve only once and had a tardy start to the first set. However, the WTA No. 63 and WTA No. 31 Indo-Ukrainian pair soon got into the groove and closed out the match in 1 hour and 9 minutes to move into the quarter-finals, 1-6 6-3 10-8. Through to the last eight, Mirza and Kichenok will be locking horns with the winners of the match between Priscilla Hon-Charlotte Kempenaers Pocz and Heather Watson-Shelby Roger for a place in the semi-finals.

On the other hand, Rohan Bopanna's pairing with Ramkumar Ramanathan also began on a pleasant note as the duo was barely ruffled in their opening Round of 32 match at the ATP 250 Adelaide tournament against Fernando Romboli and James Cerretani. Conceding only 3 games overall, Bopanna and Ramanathan worked in good coordination to tame their Brazil-American opponents, 6-2, 6-1. Continuing this good momentum, Bopanna and Ramanathan will be facing off against an all-American duo of Nathaniel Lammons and Jackson Withrow for a place in the quarters.