Miami: Sania Mirza and Cara Black fought their way into the second round even as Leander Paes made his third first-round exit in five tournaments this year when he lost his opening round at the Sony Open with partner Radek Stepanek, here.

Sania and Zimbabwe's Cara, seeded fifth, faced stiff resistance from the unseeded Taipei pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan before prevailing 6-3 6-7(8) 10-8 in the first round of the USD 5,427,105 WTA Premier tournament. They next face Georgia's Oksana Kalashnikova and Russia's Alisa Kleybanova.