Melbourne, Jan 16 India's N Sriram Balaji and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela progressed to the second round of the Australian Open men's doubles event with a dominating straight sets over Robin Haase and Aleksandr Nedovyesov on Thursday.
The Indo-Mexican duo of N. Sriram Balaji and Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela defeated the Dutch-Kazakh pair 6-4, 6-3 in just over an hour in their opening men’s doubles match.
Balaji and Reyes-Varela displayed superior consistency and firepower, hitting 23 winners compared to their opponents’ 16. After breaking serve in the sixth game of the first set, they were immediately broken back but regained control with a decisive backhand winner in the 10th game to take the set.
In the second set, a crucial unforced error by Haase and Nedovyesov handed Balaji and Reyes-Varela a break in the eighth game, which they capitalised on to close out the set and the match comfortably.
Elsewhere, Rithvik Bollipalli became the third Indian to exit the men’s doubles event, following Rohan Bopanna and Yuki Bhambri. Bollipalli and his American partner Ryan Seggerman lost 6-7, 1-6 to the sixth-seeded duo of Finland’s Harri Heliovaara and the UK’s Henry Patten.
Earlier in the day, Iga Swiatek progressed to the third round after registering a comfortable 6-0, 6-2 win over Slovakia's Rebecca Sramkova.
In relatively mild and breezy conditions, Swiatek struck 16 winners to 14 unforced errors and did not face a break point. She dominated off the ground, winning 20 of the 26 rallies that lasted five shots or more.
"I felt really solid today. It was a really efficient game. I’m happy that I kept my focus because sometimes you think in a way it seems a little bit easy and it might cause problems later on because your focus might be gone, but I’m happy that I kept it and I was solid," Swiatek said.
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