Picture Credit: Twitter
India's flagbearer in Women's tennis, Sania Mirza, has advanced into the second round of the French Open after comfortably beating pair of Santiago Gonzalez and Laura Siegemund 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round of mixed doubles. Notably, Mirza has also made it to the second round of the French Open women's double competition as her pair Lucie Hradecka bounced back from a set down to defeat Italian opponents Jasmine Paolini and Martina Trevisan 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in the first round.
Sania Mirza is all making her final appearance at Roland Garros as she is set to retire at the end of the season. Meanwhile, India's Ramkumar Ramanathan, who won his maiden Grand Slam doubles match on Wednesday, was beaten in the second round in the men's doubles competition after losing 6-3, 6-2 to sixth-seeded Dutch-British duo of Wesley Koolhof and Neal Skupski.
However, Ramanathan has been grabbing a lot of attention on social media for his actions during Mirza's mixed doubles encounter at Court 11 on Thursday. Fans caught Ramanathan babysitting Mirza's son in his arms as he was also watching the Indo-Croatian pair register a comfortable win in the first round. Even Mirza's father, Imran Mirza, tweeted, "Not just watching @MirzaSania, Ramkumar is also taking care of Izhaan Mirza Malik, allowing me to focus on the match!"
Sania will now face tenth seeded Slovenians Kaja Juvan and Tamara Zidansek, who are coming from a comprehensive victory against Tessah Andrianjafitrimo and Oceane Dodin 6-0, 6-3 in the opening round of mixed double. On the other hand, Ramanathan and his partner Elixane Lechemia in the mixed doubles will be up against Lucie Hradecka and Gonzalo Escobar in the first round.
Another Indian, Rohan Bopanna partnering with Matwe Middelkoop, will be in action at the French Open. The Indo-Dutch pair, seeded 16th, is through to the men's double pre-quarterfinals after defeating Andrey Golubev and Fabrice Martin in straight sets.