HOBART: Shrugging off her average outing at the Hopman Cup, Sania Mirza started her campaign at the $1,70,000 Moorilla Hobart International with a convincing straight set victory over unheralded Lourdes Dominguez here on Monday.
The sixth-seed Indian beat the Spaniard qualifier 6-4 6-0 to advance to the second round of the Tier IV hard court event.
Sania next face 'Lucky Loser' Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, who beat local challenge Monique Adamczak 6-3 6-2.
Meanwhile in Sydney, Leander Paes had a bad day in the office as the doubles ace, in his first appearance with Australian Paul Hanley, crashed out of the $4,65,000 Medibank International.
Paes-Hanley lost to the fourth-seed Czech pair of Martin Damm -- former partner of the Indian ace -- and Pavel Vizner 6-7 (5) 4-6 in the first round.
Another Indian in the fray, Mahesh Bhupathi has paired with Mark Knowles and they would open their campaign against Czech pair of Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych.
