Prakash Amritraj and Rohan Bopanna took their Chennai Open form to Melbourne and won their first round qualifying matches for the Australian Open at Melbourne Park on Thursday.

Amritraj scored a comfortable 6-3, 6-1 victory over Peter Wessels of the Netherlands while Bopanna overcame Venezuela's Yohny Romero 7-5, 6-3.

But India No. 1 Harsh Mankad failed to advance, losing 1-6, 3-6 to Giorgio Galimberti of Italy [Images].

Moving into the second round qualifiers in the women's draw was Shikha Uberoi. The Florida-based player overcame Henrieta Nagayova of Slovakia 7-6 (5), 7-6(5) in a tough opening game that lasted for almost two and a half hours.

Amritraj needed just 55 minutes to beat Wessels, ranked 111 places above him, and secure a place in the second round qualifying of the first Grand Slam of the year.

He next faces the United States' world number 258 Todd Widom, who got through two close tie-break sets to beat Adam Feeney.

Bopanna, who made a strong comeback to tennis last season after recovering from a bicep injury, again employed his big serve to good effect to beat Romero in 81 minutes.

The Indian had six aces and won 70 per cent of the points on first serve. Ranked 243rd, he will take on Jean-Christophe Faurel of Paraguay.

Bopanna and Amritraj reached the second round of the singles competition in Chennai last week and played explosive tennis to propel themselves into the doubles final, where they lost to Michal Mertinak and Petr Pala.

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