Leander Paes and Martina Hingis, the Australian Open defending mixed doubles champions, have a chance to meet the top seeds — Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig — in the quarterfinals of the competition if they defeat Sloane Stephens and Jean-Julien Rojer in the second round on Tuesday.
Paes and Hingis have always been a top mixed-doubles pair, as is evident from their performances last year, when they won three of four grand slam titles. Only the French Open eluded the Indo-Swiss pair.
It is a joy to watch the pair play with smiles on their face. Though, Paes (42) and Hingis (35) might not be as young as some of the players in the circuit, their game on court makes us feel otherwise: They play with high energy. Their game is also top class despite age. What makes the pair successful even more has been their amazing skills at the net, where their reflexes are second to none.
The Indo-Swiss pair, which faces Stephens and Rojer, will be aware of the need of some quality tennis in the second round. Paes and Hingis need to be careful against Rojer, primarily, as he is a strong doubles player who has achieved a career best ranking (3) in this format of tennis.
India tennis fans might also Sania's match with interest, as she features in a huge second-round contest.
Top seeds Sania and Dodig, who face Yaroslava Shvedova and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi on Tuesday, are expected to defeat their second-round opponents, but they cannot afford to take the pair lightly as the Pakistan tennis star, Qureshi, who is Rohan Bopanna's former partner, has it in him to play some quality tennis and create a major upset alongside Shvedova.
Sania and Dodig are a quality pair and make a strong team in the mixed doubles circuit, but were challenged strongly in the first round where they had to be on top of their game to defeat the home pair of Nick Kyrgios and Ajla Tomljanovic. The score read 7-5 and 6-1 in favour of the top seeds.
Sania and Dodig, who are favourites to clinch the year's first grand slam, will be keen to put up a thumping show against Shvedova and Qureshi on Tuesday, ahead of their expected clash against Paes and Hingis in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.
Where to watch Australian Open live
Australian Open 2016 live match – Sania Mirza/Ivan Dodig vs Yaroslava Shvedova and Aisam –Ul-Haq Qureshi is the last match on Day 9 in Court 3 while Leander Paes/Martina Hingis vs Sloane Stephens/Jean-Julien Rojer is the fifth match at the Magraret Court Arena. The first match is scheduled for 11 am local time (5:30 am IST, 12 am GMT, 7 pm ET).
The live coverage of the Australian Open second round match will be on Sony ESPN andSony ESPN HD in India, with the online live streaming option on Sonyliv.
The Australian Open matches can be viewed live in the UK and Ireland on BBC, with live streaming on BBCiPlayer.
Eurosport and Eurosport Player will show the Australian Open 2016 live in the rest of Europe. Channel 7 will broadcast the Australian Open live in Australia.
US viewers can watch Australian Open live on ESPN with live streaming options on Watch ESPN.
Fox Sports will show the opening round matches live in South East Asia as well as South Korea.
