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26th seed Aravane Rezai served up a clinical 69 minute performance to defeat Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza in straight sets 6-4, 6-2.

The women came into this match tied at one apiece in their head-to-head rivalry with Mirza having won their first ever meeting on the hard-courts of Kolkata more than 3 years ago, with Rezai turning the tables on the world no. 56 in their previous contest on the red clay of Madrid last year.

The first set was a very even affair with both players creating 4 opportunities to break the other's serve, the difference in the match being that Rezai took one of her chances to pick up the solitary break in the set. The second set was pretty lopsided and while Sania broke serve once, she dropped her own serve in three out of four service games allowing Rezai a fairly comfortable passage through to round 2.

In the end the match stats gave a fair reflection of how this contest transpired, Mirza's 33 unforced errors and 10 winners stacked very poorly against Rezai's 26 errors and 20 winners. Rezai was also 4 of 9 from break point opportunities while Mirza's 1 of 8 record left a taste of what might have been on another day had the Indian been able to take her chances.

Up next for Sania is the women's doubles where she teams up with Spaniard Virginia Ruano Pascual. The pair are the 10th seeds and open their campaign against a pair of Asian veterans Kimiko Date Krumm and Yayuk Bazuki, with a combined age of 78 years!

Date Krumm made her return to Grand Slam action at last year's Open after a 13 year absence, while Basuki last played in a Grand Slam at the turn of the century.

In the men's doubles India's legendary tennis stars Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are the 3rd and 4th seeds respectively and they pair up with Lukas Dlouhy and Max Mirnyi (respectively). Three other Indians are present in the doubles, with Somdev Devvarman partnering Prakash Amritraj, and Rohan Bopanna playing alongside Pakistan's Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi.

The doubles events kick off later in the week.