Chandigarh, Mar 15: Third seeded Indian pair of Rohan Bopanna and Divij Sharan defeated Peter Polansky of Canada and Ruben Bemelmans of Belgium in the ATP Challenger at the Phoenix Country Club, Phoenix (Arizona).
The Indian pair won in 55 minutes by saving four out of four breakpoints and winning two out of eight break points. They fired four aces and committed one double fault.
Bopanna-Sharan won 84 per cent points (31/37) on first service and 53 per cent (9/17) on second service.
Polansky-Bemelmans won 67 per cent points (20/30) points on first service and 45 per cent (10/22) on second service. This pair saved six out of eight break points wasted four break points.
Bopanna-Sharan will face American pair of Jamie Cerretani and Nicolas Monroe in the second round.
Cerretani-Monroe defeated Serbian duo of Pedja Krstin and Nenad Zimonjic 6-1, 7-5.
N Sriram Balaji of India, partnering Hans Hach Verdugo of Mexico, seeded four, were defeated by Zhe Li of China and Goncalo Oliveira of Portugal 6-3, 6-4 in doubles first round match in the $ 81,420 ATP Challenger Tennis Tournament in Shenzhen (China).
Vishnu Vardhan of India, pairing with Luca Margaroli of Switzerland defeated Baptiste Crepatte of France and Karim-Mohamed Maamoun of Egypt 6-2, 6-4 in the doubles first round match.
Vardhan-Margaroli will meet Zhe Li of China and Goncalo Oliveira of Portugal in the doubles second round fixture. (UNI)