Top seeded pair of Sania Mirza and Cara Black came back from a set down to quell the challenge of Irina-Camelia Begu and Maria Irigoyen in the opening round of the WTA Portugal Open, here.
The Indo-Zimbabwean team downed the Romanian-Argentine combo 4-6 6-2 10-5 in one hour and 20 minutes in the USD 250,000 clay court event.
They now await the winner of the first round match between the pairs of Maria Joao Koehler/ Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor and Silvia Soler-Espinosa/Shuai Zhang.
Meanwhile, in the euro 485,760 men’s doubles event, being held simultaneously, the Indian team of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja advanced to the quarterfinals after getting a walkover from Colombian pair of Santiago L Giraldo and Alejandro Gonzalez.
They may face top seeds Pablo Cuevas and David Marrero in the next round. The top seeds are up against Florin Mergea and Andre SA.
In the singles event, Somdev Devvarman is facing top seeded Czech Tomas Berdych in the second round.
