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IndiaSnapshot.com Jai Shri Krishna

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Sania Mirza broke her French Open drought with a crushing victory over Alberta Brianti of Italy in the first round at Roland Garros on Wednesday.

The Indian ace, who had never gone beyond the first round in two previous attempts, peppered the 87-ranked Italian with her hard-hitting groundstrokes to score a 6-1, 6-1 victory in under an hour.

Sania returned to the tour last month after a two-and-a-half month injury lay-off and failed to go past the first round in singles in both her warm-up events, in Morocco and Istanbul.

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Sania Mirza

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On Wednesday, she didn't let the Parisian clay demoralise her. She served well and once she had taken a 3-0 lead in the first set, she maintained the momentum and never let up the pressure from her forehands against an error-prone opponent.But the real test awaits the 20-year-old when she clashes with number seven seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia in the second round. Ivanovic, who made it to the quarter-final in 2005, beat Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-2, 6-0 in her first round match. Sania Mirza [Images] will partner Frenchman Fabrice Santoro while Mahesh Bhupathi will step on to the court with Paola Saurez of Argentina in the mixed doubles at the French Open.

The much-awaited pairing of Sania and Bhupathi at a Grand Slam did not fructify at this year's clay court major since their combined doubles ranking fell below the cut-off mark of 56.Meanwhile, Leander Paes will be playing with American Meghann Shaughnessy.

In the men's doubles, Paes would launch his campaign on Wednesday with his partner Martin Damm of Czech Republic against the local combination of Jeremy Chardy and Jonathan Eysseric.The duo have been seeded third and together they have won two Masters Series and were runners-up at another two ATP tournaments this season. Bhupathi has paired with Czech Republic player Radek Stepanek and they take on the Polish duo of Mariusz Fyrstenber and Marcin Matkowski.

Sania's first round match against Alberta Brianti of Italy is also scheduled for Wednesday. The 20-year-old Hyderabadi, who will be coached by Gabriel Urpi during the fortnight at Roland Garros, has teamed up with Eva Birnerova of Czech Republic for the women's doubles.

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