Sania out of doubles, Bhupathi-Stepanek cruise

Paris:

Sania Mirza's fortunes at the French Open took another knock as she exited the women's doubles with a first round loss in the company of Eva Birnerova.

The Indo-Czech pair went down to the seasoned combination of Lisa Raymond of the US and Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-1 6-2 on Thursday.

Sania, who returned to the courts from a 2-1/2 month injury lay-off a fortnight ago, won the doubles title in Morocco in her first tournament since returning to action.

The 20-year-old Indian had earlier bowed out of singles in the second round, with a 6-2 6-4 loss to Serbian seventh seed Ana Ivanovic.

Meanwhile, Mahesh Bhupathi and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek cruised into the second round of the men's doubles competition with a straight-set win over the Polish pair of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski.