Rohan Bopanna made it to the second round while Sania Mirza reached the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters after scoring fluent victories with their respective partners, here
Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna
Bopanna and Mergea called the shots from the word go, building up a healthy 5-1 lead but Mayer and Monaco reduced the deficit with a gritty fight.
Serving for the opening set, Bopanna committed a double fault to be down 30-40 but he saved the break chance with an ace and wrapped the set after 29 minutes of play.
There was better fight in the second set but eventually the Indo-Romanian pair prevailed, thanks to an early break which stayed with them.
For a place in the quarterfinals, they will fight it with third seeded team of Dutch player Jean-Julien Rojer and Romania's Horia Tecau.
In the USD 2,183,600 WTA event, being played simultaneously, the top seeded pair of Sania and Martina Hingis outclassed the Romanian pair of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu 6-4 6-2 in the second round, yesterday.
In the quarterfinals, they face Germany's Julia Goerges and Spain's Sílvia Soler-Espinosa.
