Shrugging off her average outing at the Hopman Cup, Sania Mirza started her campaign at the USD 1,70,000 Moorilla Hobart International with a convincing straight sets victory over unheralded Lourdes Dominguez in Hobart on Monday.
The sixth-seeded Indian beat the Spaniard qualifier 6-4, 6-0 to advance to the second round of the Tier IV hard court event.
Sania next faces Lucky Loser Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, who beat local challenge Monique Adamczak 6-3, 6-2.
Meanwhile in Sydney, Leander Paes had a bad day in the office as the doubles ace, in his second appearance with Australian Paul Hanley, crashed out of the USD 4,65,000 Medibank International.
The Indo-Australian duo had crashed out in the first round of the Adelaide international tennis tournament last week, losing 6-7, 5-7 to Benjamin Becker and Oliver Marach.
Paes-Hanley lost to the fourth-seed Czech pair of Martin Damm -- former partner of the Indian ace -- and Pavel Vizner 6-7 (5) 4-6 in the first round.
Another Indian in the fray, Mahesh Bhupathi has paired with Mark Knowles and they would open their campaign against Czech pair of Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych.
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