Sania-Mara win doubles match

The top two seeds in singles, Italian Mara Santangelo and Indian Sania Mirza won their doubles match against A. Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan and Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus in the opening round of Sony Ericsson International WTA tennis tournament held in Bangalore on Wednesday.

Sania-Mara pair won the match by 6-2, 7-6 (7-4). Their victory thrilled the 600-odd crowd here.

The way Sania-Mara pair took over after both combinations broke back in the first two games, the match should have been over much quicker than it eventually took.

The winning pair did enjoy breaks in third and seventh games to quickly take the first set in 30 minutes. But the second set took close to 50 minutes with Sania-Mara duo going down on their percentage of break points won.

The match would not have gone to the tie-breaker had the winning duo held on to the serve in the 12th game. "We both did commit mistakes but then that's part of doubles. But the good thing is we won eventually," said Sania at the end of the match.

Photograph: STRDEL/AFP/Getty Images