January 17, Melbourne On Friday, Indian star Rohan Bopanna and his Chinese partner Shuai Zhang defeated Ivan Dodig and Kristina Mladenovic in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 to move to the second round of the Australian Open mixed doubles.

After finishing the match in one hour and twelve minutes, Bopanna and Zhang will take on the winners of the match between the wild card Australian combo of Maddison Inglis and Jason Kuber and the fourth-seeded American team of Taylor Townsend and Hugo Nys of Monegasque.

The Indo-Chinese pair put on a great show to start the match, taking a 3-0 lead in the first set. Even when the Frenchwoman Mladenovic and the Croatian Dodig broke Zhang’s serve, bringing the score to 3-2, Bopanna remained composed under duress and won the set 6-4.

Then, saving break opportunities in the eighth game, Zhang/Bopanna overcame a late challenge to win the second set 6-4.

In 2023, Bopanna and Sania Mirza made it to the mixed doubles final after Bopanna’s early elimination from the men’s doubles tournament.

India’s N Sriram Balaji and his Mexican partner Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela advanced to the Australian Open 2025 men’s doubles second round earlier in the competition.

However, the all-Indian duo of Vijay Sundar Prashanth and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan lost to France’s Gregoire Jacq and Brazil’s Orlando Luz 6-2, 6-2, failing to overcome the first round obstacle.

Anirudh Chandrasekar, another Indian, and his Polish partner Karol Drzewiecki, who started the event as alternates, fought hard against Petros Tsitsipas of Greece and Damir Dzumhur of Bosnia and Herzegovina before losing 7(7)-6(1), 2-6, 7(10)-6(6).