Australian Open: Sania-Rohan pair advances to mixed doubles quarterfinals

NEW DELHI: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna defeated the Uruguayan and Japanese pair of Ariel Behar and Makato Ninomiya 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) at Court 7.Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna, on Monday, January 23, made their way through to the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles in the Australian Open 2023.

The Indian pair defeated the Uruguayan and Japanese pair of Ariel Behar and Makato Ninomiya 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) on Court 7.

Mirza and Bopanna found themselves in the driver’s seat after earning their first service early in the first set. However, the opponent earned a break back to make it 2-2 in the opener. At 3-3, Mirza and Bopanna broke their opposition’s serve yet another time and didn’t look back in the first set.

At 3-3 in the second set, the Mirza-Bopanna pair again put pressure on their opponent with a break of serve. But soon, the pair of Behar and Ninomiya earned the break back to make it 4-4 in the second set.

The final set tie-breaker went deep where both teams fought their hearts out, but in the end, the Indian pair held their nerve and won it.

Mirza and Bopanna will now lock horns with the Latvian and Spanish pair of Jelena Ostapenko and David Vega Hernandez in their quarterfinal fixture.

Ostapenko will also take part in the women’s singles quarter-final, where she will face Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina, who earlier knocked World No.1 Iga Swiatek out of the tournament with a straight sets win.

Last year, Sania also advanced to the semi-final of the US Open last year where she paired with Croatia’s Mate Pavic. In the ongoing Australian Open, she failed to go past the second round in the women’s doubles. The current tournament will be Sania’s last in Grand Slams.