Melbourne, Jan 22 (IANS): India's Divij Sharan on Wednesday advanced to the second round of men's doubles event at the Australian Open after beating Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa along with his New Zealand partner Artem Sitak.

Divij and Sitak needed an hour and 28 minutes to win the first-round match 6-4, 7-5 against their lower-ranked opponents. The pair won 69 per cent 1st serve points and hit 27 winners to get their Australian Open campaign going.

On Thursday, India's Sania Mirza, who won the doubles title in Hobart International, will team up with Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine for the Australia Open.

The duo will face Chinese pair of Xinyun Han and Lin Zhu in their women's doubles first round clash.

Earlier on Tuesday, India's top-ranked tennis player Prajnesh Gunneswaran bowed out of the competition after losing to Japan's Tatsuma Ito. Prajnesh, who had entered the main draw of the men's singles event as a lucky loser in the qualifiers, fought for two hours as rain played spoilsport before he went down 4-6, 2-6, 5-7 against Ito.