Sania Mirza

Shrugging off her average outing at the Hopman Cup, Sania Mirza [Images] started her campaign at the USD 1,70,000 Moorilla Hobart International with a convincing straight sets victory over unheralded Lourdes Dominguez in Hobart on Monday.

The sixth-seeded Indian beat the Spaniard qualifier 6-4, 6-0 to advance to the second round of the Tier IV hard court event.

Sania next faces Lucky Loser Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, who beat local challenge Monique Adamczak 6-3, 6-2.

Meanwhile in Sydney, Leander Paes [Images] had a bad day in the office as the doubles ace, in his second appearance with Australian Paul Hanley [Images], crashed out of the USD 4,65,000 Medibank International.

The Indo-Australian duo had crashed out in the first round of the Adelaide international tennis tournament last week, losing 6-7, 5-7 to Benjamin Becker and Oliver Marach.

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 [Images] has paired with Mark Knowles and they would open their campaign against Czech pair of Radek Stepanek and Tomas Berdych.