Sania Mirza and Chia-Jung Chuang scored a hard-fought 6-4, 6-2 victory over Americans Jill Craybas and Carly Gullickson to advance to the women's doubles second round at Wimbledon on Thursday.
The 15th seeded Indo-Taipei pair needed 79 minutes to get the better of their unseeded American opponents.
In an intriguing first set, Sania and Chuang met with stiff resistance from the Americans and had to wait till the eighth break-point of the fourth game to score their first break. The Americans saved seven back-to-back break-points but the effort wasn't enough against equally unrelenting opponents.
However, the compliment was returned in the next game as the Americans converted their second chance.
Sania and Chuang were, however, unfazed and broke at love in the sixth to regain the lead only to see the Americans regroup and brake once more to stay in contention.
The seeded pair, however, relied on experience and broke Craybas and Gullickson at love in the 10th game to wrap the first set.
The teams took their battle to the second set but Sania and Chuang showed better staying power as they scored crucial breaks in the sixth and eight games to take the set and match.
They next face Alla Kudryavtseva/Monica Niculescu, who beat Spain's Lourdes Dominguez Lino/Aranta Parra Santonja 7-5, 4-6, 6-1in another first round match.
