Bopanna-Ebden pair survives opener

MELBOURNE: Rohan Bopanna and Matthew Edben, the No. 2 seeds, started slowly, trailing by a double break. At 0-5, the first set looked done, but they came back strongly to move past wildcard entrants James Duckworth and Marc Polmans in the first round here.

The Indo-Aussie pairing scored a memorable 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (2) win in which they played two outstanding tie-breaks in their tournament opener that lasted two hours and nine minutes.

The all-Indian pairing of Anirudh Chandrasekar and 37-year Vijay Sunder Prashanth, wildcard entrants, went down 3-6, 4-6 to the Hungarian pair of Marton Fucsovics and Fabian Maroszan in their opener.