India's tennis team had a strong start at the Commonwealth Games on Monday, winning three singles matches and one in mixed doubles by the top-seeded pair of Leander Paes and Sania Mirza.
India's most popular tennis couple, who won the 2009 Australian Open mixed doubles title, defeated Stacey Rocheman and Matt Ebden of St. Lucia 6-1, 6-0.
''Sania and I had a really easy (first-round) draw. But in tennis, to win a tournament, you have to beat everybody. You have to do everything right,'' Paes said.
''I just hope we can keep building on this,'' said Mirza, looking much slimmer and fitter after her marriage to Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Malik in April this year.
''Everbody told me that after the wedding you will become fatter. But I have become thinner,'' Mirza joked.
India's other successes came in men's and women's singles matches.
Rohan Bopanna won his opening singles match against Robert Buyinza of Uganda 6-1, 6-4. In women's singles Rushmi Chakravarthi defeated Pinki Agnes Montlha of Lesotho 6-0, 6-1 in 41 minutes while Poojashree Venkatesha beat Nthabiseng Eunicia Nqosa, also of Lesotho, 6-0, 6-0 in just 33 minutes.
However, Bopanna and Nirupama Sanjeev lost to the top-seeded Australian mixed doubles pair of Anastasia Rodionova and Paul Hanley 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.
''We would have loved to win both matches,'' Bopanna said. ''We played well but we came up short. A couple of good shots and we could have closed the door.''
Bopanna had nine aces, six in the second set, against Buyinza. But after an easy first set, both players held serve in the second until Bopanna broke his opponent in the eighth game.
''It was a good first round, getting used to the courts and conditions,'' he said.
The Australians dominated the first set and took advantage of Sanjeev's weak serves, but Hanley appeared to wilt in the heat of the second set as the Indian team rebounded.
Hanley and the Russian-born Rodionova broke Sanjeev again in the eighth game of the third set and then held for victory.
''I did have a bit of rhythm problem in the first set and final set,'' Sanjeev said. ''It was more nerves than anything else. I have not been in this situation for a long time.''
Rodionova is the top-seeded player in the women's singles draw, which is without French Open finalist Sam Stosur of Australia. Other notable absentees from the tennis competition include Andy Murray of Scotland, Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.
In men's doubles, the former top-ranked Indian doubles team of Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi are gold medal favorites. Somdev Devvarman of India is the top-seeded men's player, and Mirza is No. 2 in the women's competition.
Also Monday, eighth-seeded Josh Milton of Wales defeated Francis Mwangi of Kenya 6-0, 6-2 and Amresh Jayawickreme of Sri Lanka beat David Thomas of Bermuda 6-1, 6-2.
