French Open: Sania Mirza Crashes Out; Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes Advance

It was a disappointing start for Sania Mirza in the second Grand Slam of the year. The Indian crashed out of the women's doubles event in the very first round with partner Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan in Paris on Wednesday. The fourth seeds lost 6-7(5) 6-1 2-6 to the Australian-Russian pair of Daria Gavrilova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. However, Rohan Bopanna and Pablo Cuevas had a winning start in the men's doubles event of the French Open. They Indo-Uruguayan ninth seeds didn't have to break into sweat as they demolished the all-French pair of Mathias Bourgue and Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-1 6-1 to make the second round.

Leander Paes also had a winning start at the French Open. Pairing with American Scott Lipsky, Paes defeated Radu Albot and Hyeon Chung 7-6 (5) 4-6 6-2 to advance to the second round in the men's doubles event.

Sania's start to the year has been rather quiet. The former world No 1 doubles star started the season with a win in Brisbane but since then, has made only one final in Miami. She paired up with Shvedova recently and the partnership has given results. They reached the quarterfinals in Madrid and semis in Rome. At the French Open, Sania and Shvedova lost the first set in the tiebreak after a tough fight but came back strong to level scores in the second. However, they failed to capitalize on chances in the decider to lose in the first round in 143 minutes.

Sania will next be seen in the mixed doubles event with Ivan Dodig where they will hope to do one better than last year when they finished runners-up. They have been seeded second this year.

Bopanna and Cuevas didn't face any trouble against the French wildcard pair as they won in exactly 53 minutes on the red clay. The Indo-Uruguayan pair have had a good clay season so far - winning the title in Monte Carlo and reaching the quarters in Rome.