Indian pair Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna on Monday sealed their berth in the quarterfinals of the ongoing Australian Open 2023 in the mixed doubles category at Melbourne, beating Uruguay’s Ariel Behar and Japan’s Makoto Ninomiya.
The veteran Indian duo of Mirza and Bopanna defeated their opponents in straight sets 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) on Court 7.
Sania and Rohan were off to a good start in the contest as they earned their first service early in the match. They were pegged back to 2-2 as their opponents earned a break back in the opening game.
After making it 3-3 in the first set the Indian pair broke their opponent’s service again.
They went on to win the first game 6-4, and an intense second set followed suit. It was 3-3 in the second set when Mirza and Bopanna started to dominate with another break of serve.
However, the Uruguayan and the Japanese pair were back at level pegging at 4-4 earning a break back in the second set.
The final tie-breaker was a nerve-cracking affair as it went deep with both sets of players giving it their all however the Indian duo had the precision to pull away with a remarkable victory.
Mirza and Bopanna will next square off against Latvian and Spanish pair of Jelena Ostapenko and David Vega Hernandez in the quarterfinal round.
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Apart from the mixed doubles match, Ostapenko will also battle it out with Elena Rybakina in the women’s singles quarterfinal.
Elena had earlier hogged the limelight as she eliminated world number 1 Iga Swiatek in the earlier round with a straight sets victory.
The ongoing Australian Open is Sania’s last Grand Slam and she earlier exited the tournament in the second round of women’s doubles. She will however have one final hurrah as the 36-year-old will take part in the WTA Dubai Championships, which will start in February.
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