Rohan Bopanna, Pablo Cuevas reach round 2 in men's doubles of Australian Open

India’s Rohan Bopanna and his Uruguan partner Pablo Cuevas beat Thomaz Belluci of Brazil and Maximo Gonzalez of Argentina in straight sets to storm into the men’s doubles second round at the Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday. In an early match in the men’s singles draw, Kei Nishikori advanced into the third round after beating Jeremy Chardy.

Rohan Bopanna and Cuevas won 6-4, 7-6 in one hour and 24 minutes. The Indo-Uruguay combine dominated the match, breaking their opponents serve once in each set. However, Belluci-Gonzalez broke back in the second set to take it to tie-breaker which was sealed by Bopanna and Cuevas.Rohan Bopanna has had a winning start to the year, after capturing the Chennai Open title earlier this month. Bopanna and partner Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan beat Indian pair of Purav Raja and Divij Sharan 6-3, 6-4 in the final in Chennai on



January 9.

In the men’s singles draw, Kei Nishikori shook off the effects of a tough five-set victory in the opening round and took advantage of Jeremy Chardy’s inconsistent service game to advance to the third round of the Australian Open on Wednesday.Nishikori beat Chardy 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 on Hisense Arena as the Frenchman wasted several opportunities to deliver a real challenge to the fifth seed.

Chardy, who beat Nicolas Almagro in the first round when the Spaniard retired after four games, broke the Japanese three times in the match, only to broken right back. He also blew several rallies he had control of.

Nishikori had needed three hours, 34 minutes to wear down Russia’s Andrey Kuznetsov in the first round but was far more consistent on Wednesday, breaking the 29-year-old Chardy seven times to take the win in two hours, seven minutes.