January 23, 2014
While Sania and Tecau beat Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Julia Georges 6-3, 6-4, Rohan Bopanna and Katarina Srebotnik lost 5-7, 3-6 to Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden in the other quarter-final
January 23, 2014
While Sania and Tecau beat Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Julia Georges 6-3, 6-4, Rohan Bopanna and Katarina Srebotnik lost 5-7, 3-6 to Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden in the other quarter-final
Melbourne: India's Sania Mirza and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau stormed into the semifinals of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open with straight sets victory over Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Julia Georges, here on Thursday.
Sixth seed Sania and Tecau hardly broke a sweat to prevail over the unseeded Aisam-Julia combination 6-3, 6-4 in their quarterfinal clash that lasted just 63 minutes.
The Indo-Romanian duo will play Australian pair of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden in the semifinals.
The unseeded Australian pair stunned second seeds Katarina Srebotnik of Sloivakia and India's Rohan Bopanna 7-5, 6-3 in another quarterfinal.
Sania and Tecau got three opportunities to break their opponents in the opening set, out of which they converted one, which was enough for the Indo-Romanian pair to pocket the set in 28 minutes.
In the next set, Sania and Tecau broke their opponents in the ninth game to serve out the set in 35 minutes and book a place in the last four stage.
Rohan Bopanna and his Slovakian partner Katarina Srebotnik were humbled by Australia's Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden in mixed doubles quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Wednesday. The second seeds lost 5-7, 3-6 to the defending champions in 67 minutes.
Earlier, India's Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek lost their men's doubles quarterfinals. Paes-Stepanek suffered a 2-6, 6-7 loss to Michael Llodra and Nicholas Mahut, the 13th seeds from France.
Both Paes and Stepanek were erratic in the first set and committed four double faults. They also made 11 unforced errors while the Frenchmen made six.
Sania Mirza (Horia Tecau) and Paes (Daniela Hantuchova) remain in the mixed doubles draw. They play their quarterfinals with their respective partners Thursday.
Courtesy: PTI
