Melbourne: Sania Mirza and Leander Paes were on course for an Australian Open showdown as they reached the mixed doubles semi-finals with their respective partners, here on Wednesday.
Sania Mirza and her Brazilian partner Bruno Soares carved out a 6-2, 6-2 win over the home pair of Casey Dellacqua and John Peers in the quarter finals, which lasted in only 53 minutes.
Seventh-seeded Leander and Swiss Martina Hingis progressed from the bottom-half of the draw with a 6-3, 6-1 win over fourth seeds Andrea Hlavackova from Czech Republic and Austria’s Alexander Peya.
Sania and Soares broke their rivals two times each in both sets. They did not face any breakpoint in the opening set and saved a couple in the second set.
They now await winners of the other last-eight match between third seeds Kristina Mladenovic/Daniel Nestor and fifth seeds Cara Black/Juan Sebastian Cabal.
Paes and Hingis will face either Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay or second seeds Katarina Srebotnik from Slovakia and Marcelo Melo from Brazil.
Meanwhile, in the boys singles, Sumit Nagal’s campaign ended with a crushing 1-6, 1-6 defeat against Australia’s Marc Polmans in the third round.
Earlier, Sania and Leander had carved out contrasting wins to reach the mixed doubles quarters.
While top seeds Sania and Soares edged past Abigail Spears and Santiago Gonzalez 7-5, 6-7 (3), 10-8, Paes and Hingis had outplayed the Spanish combine of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Pablo Andujar 6-3, 6-1.
The US-Mexican pair of Spears and Gonzalez had given a bit of a hard time to Sania and Soares but the experienced pair handled the pressure well to seal the match in a tense super tie-break.
Paes and Hingis, on the other hand, were clinical against their Spanish opponents, wrapping up the contest in 51 minutes.
The Indo-Swiss pair had converted four out of their 10 break points besides winning bulk of the points on serve.
Rohan Bopanna and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova were knocked out of the competition in the first round itself, losing to Mladenovic and Nestor 2-6, 6-3, 4-10 in the super tie-break.
