Melbourne: Sania Mirza entered the women’s doubles semifinals and set up a high-intensity clash against Leander Paes in the mixed doubles after both the Indians made the quarterfinals with their respective partners in the Australian Open here on Tuesday.
Sania and Swiss great Martina Hingis, seeded No.1, survived a mid-match slump to beat the 12th seeded German-American combine of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Coco Vandeweghe 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
The duo, who are on a record winning streak, will next face the 13th seeded German-Czech pair of Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova.
Later, Sania and Croat Ivan Dodig, also seeded top, sailed past the unseeded Kazakh-Pakistani duo of Yaroslava Shvedova and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 7-5, 6-2.
On the other hand, Paes and Sania’s women’s doubles partner Martina Hingis hammered the American-Dutch pair of Sloane Stephens and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-1, 6-2.
As a result, Sania and Paes find themselves pitted against each other in the mixed doubles quarterfinals.
Pranjala-Karman in junior quarters
In the Junior Australian Open, Hyderabad’s Yadlapalli Pranjala conitnued her impressive form by sailing into the girls’ doubles quarterfinals.
Pranjala and Karman Kaur Thandi — seeded fifth — defeated China’s Siqi Cao and Jia Ren 6-4, 4-6, 10-2.
