US Open: Bhupathi-Sania knocked out in 1st round

Sixth seeds Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi made a shock first-round exit from the mixed doubles event but Somdev Devvarman and his partner entered the men's doubles second round with a straight-set win in the US Open in New York.

Sania and Bhupathi lost 3-6, 6-7 (5) to the Czech pair of Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak in a contest that lasted a little over an hour.

However, Somdev, who lost to Andy Murray in the men's singles opening round, ensured that India didn't go winless on Day Four of the season's last Grand Slam.

Somdev and his Filipino partner Treat Conrad Huey defeated Russians Igor Andreev and Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4 to enter the men's doubles second round.

The Indo-Filipino pair broke their rivals four times in the course of the match that lasted one hour and seven minutes.

Somdev and Huey will face 14th seeds Argentines Juan Ignacio Chela and Eduardo Schwank in their next match. Earlier, on Tuesday, Sania was ousted from the women's singles by former doubles partner Shahar Peer, who rallied to hand the Indian a 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-1 defeat.

She, however, went on to advance to the 2nd round of women's doubles with partner Elena Vesnina, while Bhupathi will team up with Paes in the second round of the men's doubles after getting the better of the Ukrainian-Spanish pair of Alexandr Dolgopolov and Albert Ramos 7-6 (8), 6-4 on Tuesday.

Photograph: Jay Mandal