Sania Mirza, Martina Hingis make winning start at Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis saw off the challenge of Australian team of Casey Dellacqua and Samantha Stosur to move to the second round of the BNP Paribas Open, here.

The top seeded Indo-Swiss pair defeated their rivals 6-3 7-5 in just 68 minutes in their opening round of the USD 6,844,139 hard court event.

Sania and Martina saved four of the six breakpoints they faced in the match and broke their rivals five times in the tight contest.

They next face local girl Vania King and Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva, who beat Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Czech Republic's Barbora Strycova 4-6 6-3 10-5.

In the men's event, Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea, seeded fifth, are up against Spanish team of Feliciano Lopez and Marc López in their first round of the USD 7,037,595 event.