Press Trust of India
Melbourne, Jan 23: Sania Mirza continued her rampaging run, advancing to the pre-quarterfinals of both the women’s doubles and mixed doubles on an all-win day for the country’s players at the Australian Open here Saturday.
In women’s doubles, top-seeded duo of Sania and Martina Hingis sailed past the Ukrainian duo of Lyudmyla Kichenok and Nadiia Kichenok 6-2, 6-3. In the mixed event, Sania and Croat Ivan Dodig, also seeded top, got the better of Australians Ajla Tomljanovic and Nick Kyrgios 7-5, 6-1.
Sania and Martina will next face the Russian-Italian combo of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Roberta Vinci. In the round of 32, the Indo-Swiss combo did not face a single breakpoint on their serves and broke their opponents thrice in the match. Sania was dominant from the back of the court hitting some booming forehands, while Hingis controlled play from the deuce court.
In the mixed draw, Sania and Dodig will square off against the Kazakh-Pakistani team of Yaroslava Shvedova and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi.
The Indians also enjoyed a good day in the junior competition. In the girls’ segment, 10th seed Pranjala Yadlapalli defeated Japan’s Mayuka Aikawa 6-4, 5-7, 6-1. In the junior boys’ category Karman Thandi had smooth 6-3, 6-4 victory over Australia’s Olivia Gadecki.