Sports India

Sania Mirza and her U.S. partner Bethanie Mattek easily defeated the Russian-Ukrainian pair of Alla Kudrayavtseva and Tetiana Luzhanska 6-1, 6-3.

They are now set for a second round clash with Shikkha Uberoi and Slovak Jelena Jankovic at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

The Indo-U.S. team will meet with tough opposition in Sania’s Fed Cup partner Shikha and her partner Jelena, who cased a major upset beating the top seed Japanese-Slovak duo of Ai Sugiyama and Daniel Hantuchove 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.

Sania crashed out of the singles event in the first round losing in straight sets to 98th ranked Russian Vasilisa Bardian. However, she managed to come out of her losing streak with good doubles form.