MELBOURNE: Fourth-seeds
Sania Mirza of India and Czech Barbora Strycova fell to the gritty Japanese pairing of Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato in the third round of the Australian Open on Sunday.
Hozumi and Kato, using lobs and checking the pace of play, came through 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in just under two hours. The Japanese scored on points won on second serves and on returning second serves, 16 of 30 and 19 of 31, significantly more than their opponents even though there wasn't much to pick between the two sides on the total number of points won. The victors had 93 while the fourth seeds finished with 90. In the mixed doubles, wildcard entrants
Leander Paes of India and Swiss
Martina Hingis
came through 6-4, 6-3 over another Australian wildcard pairing of Destanee Aiava and Marc Polmans in the first round.
The Indo-Swiss pairing will next play another Aussie combine of
Casey Dellacqua
and Matt Reid, who've also entered the tournament as wildcards.
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