Melbourne, January 19

India’s N Sriram Balaji and his Romanian partner Victor Vlad Cornea entered the second round of the men’s doubles at the Australian Open here on Friday.

They defeated the Italian duo of Matteo Arnaldi and Andrea Pellegrino 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.

In the next round, the Indo-Romanian pair will take on 10th seeds Marcelo Arevalo of El Salvador and Mate Pavic of Croatia.

The Balaji-Cornea team came in as an alternate pair into the competition. While the Indian is ranked 79th in ATP doubles ranking, the Romanian is ranked 69th.

It is only the second time that Balaji has made it to the second round of the Australian Open, having done so last year with fellow Indian Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan.

Overall, this is the third time Balaji has entered the second round of a Grand Slam. He had progressed to the second round of the Wimbledon 2018 with fellow Indian Vishnu Vardhan.