MELBOURNE:
Sania Mirza and
Rohan Bopanna set up a mixed doubles quarterfinal clash against each other at the
Australian Open
after winning their respective matches on Tuesday.
Bopanna and his Canadian partner
Gabriela Dabrowski
knocked out the fifth-seeded team of Yung-Jan Chan and Lukasz Kubot 6-4 5-7 10-3 in their second round match.
Later, Sania and her partner Croatian
Ivan Dodig
, seeded second, overcame stiff resistance from Saisai Zheng and
Alexander Peya
to triumph 2-6 6-3 10-6.
Austrian Peya served a double fault at 5-5 in the decisive Super Tie-Breaker but after that the second seeds reeled off five straight points to seal the issue.
One Indian is now certain to feature in the semifinals and if
Leander Paes manages to win his quarterfinal with partner
Martina Hingis
, the semifinal will again feature two Indians.
Paes and Hingis are up against local favourites Samantha Stosur and Sam Groth.
Meanwhile, in the juniors events, Siddhant Banthia reached the boys doubles quarterfinal with Turkish partner Kaya Gore with a 6-3 7-6(6) win over sixth seeds Zizou Bergs and Yshai Oliel.
However, Mihika Yadav went down fighting in girls singles second round with a 2-6 1-6 defeat against 10th seeded Japanese Mai Hontama.