Bopanna-Qureshi braves sweltering heat to reach second round of Australian Open

Melbourne: Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi braved sweltering heat and a stiff challenge from Rameez Junaid and Adrian Mannarino to enter the second round of the Australian Open men's doubles event here on Thursday.

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The seventh seeded Indo-Pak pair, aiming to win its first Grand Slam, edged past the unseeded opponents 6-3, 4-6, 7-6(5) in the first round that last lasted one hour and 45 minutes.

In the women's doubles, sixth seeded Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black began their campaign with a fluent 6-1 6-4 win over Australian combo of Tammi Patterson and Arina Rodionova.

As the temperature soared to 41 degree Celsius, the organisers were forced to cancel many matches.

Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek's first round outing was also cancelled. They are scheduled to clash with the Czech pair of Lukas Dlouhy and Lukas Rosol. "I have played all over the world but today's heat conditions had to be by far the worst ever. Could have easily fried an EGG today on court," Bopanna wrote on his twitter page after the win.

"Think I have aged a few yrs after our win today... Inspite of our interrupted match due to serious serious heat.. @AustralianOpen," read his another tweet.

They next take on the British pair of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins.