Top Indian tennis players--Leander Paes, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna--will be in action on Day 5 of the US Open on Friday. Sania and Bopanna will be involved in their respective mixed doubles tie, while Paes will be engaged in the men's doubles fixture.
Paes, who has partnered Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, will face the American pair of Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey in the second round. The Indo-Spaniard pair looked calm and composed in their first round tie against Germany's Florian Mayer and Frank Moser, who lost the game in straight sets 6-2 and 6-3.
However, Paes and Verdasco have to be on top of their game against Johnson and Querrey, who played some amazing tennis to dump the top seeds--Mike and Bob Bryan--out of the competition, which must have helped the US pair gain tremendous confidence going into the second round clash.
Paes must bring all his experience of having played doubles tennis for more than two decades, while Verdasco needs to support Paes to the core against the US pair. On paper, Paes and Verdasco seem to be a perfect pair with left and right hand combination. Add to it, Paes' reflexes at the net and Verdasco's game from the baseline, they can prove to be the dark horse of the tournament.
An interesting game looms large with the winner of the clash expected to face the Colombian pair of Robert Farah and Juan Sebastian Cabal in the third round.
Meanwhile, Bopanna, who will partner Yung-Jan Chan from Chinese Taipei, has been seeded second in the mixed doubles completion, will start off their campaign against the pairing of Verdasco and Belinda Bencic.
Bopanna has never progressed beyond the quarter finals stage of any grand slam in the mixed doubles competition, but will be a serious contender alongside Chan, who has finished runners up in 2011 Australian Open. Chan has plenty of experience in the doubles circuit to provide good support to the big serving Indian.
However, it is Sania and Brazil's Bruno Soares, who are one of the favourites in the mixed doubles, after being seeded number one. The Indo-Brazilian pair, who are the defending champions as well, face Lukas Kubot and Andrea Hlavackova.
There is a good chemistry between Sania and Soares, which helped them win the US Open last year as well and the pair will be eager to come up with a similar performance in the last grand slam of the year after some frustrating performance in the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon this season.
Sania and Soares cannot afford to take Kubot and Hlavackova lightly in the first round after their Round 1 exit from the French Open in the second grand slam of the year.
Where to Watch Live
The live coverage of the 2015 US Open is scheduled for 11am local time (8:30pm IST, 4pm BST, 1m AEST) start. Indian viewers can catch the entire Day 5 action on Ten Sports with live streaming option on tensports.com.
UK viewers can watch the Day 5 live coverage of the US Open on Sky Sports 1/HD with live streaming on Sky Go.
Viewers in the US can enjoy the live US Open coverage on ESPN and online on Watch ESPN.
Fox Sports 4 will offer live coverage of the US Open 2015 in Australia with an online option on Foxtel.
