Mixed day for Indian tennis Down Under

Sania Mirza continued her winning run at the Hobart International as she moved into the semi-finals of the women’s doubles along with Ukranian partner Nadiia Kichenok on Thursday.

The doubles pair triumphed in the super tie-breaker to get past formidable American duo, Christina McHale and Vania King, 6-2, 4-6, 10-4 in the quarter-final. Sania Mirza and Nadiia Kichenok will next face Slovenian Tamara Zidansek and Czech Republic’s Marie Bouzkova in the final four on Friday.

This was the second-straight game where the Indo-Ukranian pair had to come up trumps in the super tie-breaker after they had ground out a similar win in the Round of 16 against Japan’s Miyu Kato and Georgia’s Oksana Kalashnikova.

Rohan Bopanna, Divij Sharan fall at Auckland Open

While Sania Mirza charted a memorable return to tennis, her mixed doubles partner for the Olympics and compatriot Rohan Bopanna could not make it past the quarter-finals at the Auckland Open.

The pair of Rohan Bopanna and Finnish partner Henri Kontinen were beaten in straight sets by Great Britain’s Luke Bambridge and Japan’s Ben McLachlan, 3-6, 4-6. The Indo-Finn pair, ranked third for the ATP 250 event, were outplayed by their unseeded opponents as they eased into the semi-finals.

Bambridge and McLachlan will next face the Belgian pair of Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen, who incidentally nipped a potential Indian face-off in the bud as they defeated Divij Sharan and his partner and local favourite, Artem Sitak, 7-5, 6-7, 9-11.

The duo, who had ousted top seeds Australian John Peers and New Zealand’s Michael Venus in straight sets in the previous round, could not repeat the feat this time.

Divij-Sitak won the first set as they broke their opponents’ serve once. They conceded a close second set, which meant that the match had to be decided by a super tie-breaker, which was again a close affair.

The Indo-Kiwi duo matched their rivals point-for-point but could not prevent a 9-11 defeat.