Sydney: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis eased past Anastasia and Arina Rodionova, in the opening round of women's doubles, at the Sydney International, on Tuesday. The world No.1 doubles team entered the quarter finals.

Sania and Swiss great Martina mauled the Rodionova pair, representing Australia, 6-2, 6-3.

Rohan Bopanna, too, won his opening round alongside Romanian partner Florin Mergea, to enter the quarter finals . The fourth seeds had to dig deep to beat Denis Istomin and Henri Kontinen 6-7, 6-3, 10-8.

Sania and Martina began 2016 by winning the Brisbane International last week, for their sixth title in a row.

In women's singles, world No. 2 Simona Halep overcame a nagging Achilles problem to beat Caroline Garcia of France at the Sydney International on Tuesday ahead of next week's Australian Open.

The Romanian withdrew from the Brisbane International last week because of the injury, which also affected her 2015 campaign, and she called the trainer during her second-round match.

Halep, who was given a first-round bye, said the pain was coming and going, but she produced some of her best tennis in the deciding set on the way to a 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 victory that set up a quarter final against Czech fifth seed Karolina Pliskova.

"When you have pain, you always get scared because you don't know what is going to happen," she said after her win.