Australian Open: Mirza-Dodig knockout defending champions Paes-Hingis in quarters
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Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig put up a fine display to knockout defending champions Leander Paes and Martina Hingis in the quarter-final of the mixed doubles on Thursday. The duo will now face the fifth-seeded pair of Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares in the semi-final.
Mirza/ Dodig and Hingis/ Paes exchanged one break each in the opening six games of the first set. The Indo-Swiss pair were very aggressive in their approach to the nets, and went for early winners. With both of their opponents heading for the nets, Dodig, and Mirza in particular, used plenty of lob shots in the first set.
Mirza, who produced a stunning performance in the women's doubles semi-final, was looking far from her best though, as she committed some unforced errors, and her forehand failed to hit the mark often. Paes and Hingis looked more coordinated as a pair in the opening phase of the match. On the other hand, Mirza and Dodig wasted a break point on Paes' serve when they both went for the same ball ending in a clash of racquets, that forced Mirza to change her's.
There was an interesting contrast in serving as well, with Dodig preferring to serve down the middle, while Paes was mostly serving out-wide – opening up different parts of the court for Hingis and Mirza at the net.
At 5-5, Mirza's serve was put under a lot of pressure by Paes, who was dominating at the net at that point. At 40-40, Hingis and Paes had an opportunity to break, but the Swiss star missed a winner down the line and failed to grab the opportunity.
Hingis made up for it on her serve in the next game though, as she produced some stunning ground strokes from the baseline to win the game (6-6) and take the set to a tie-break.
While the opening 12 games was a tightly-fought affair, the tie-break was completely one-sided. Mirza and Dodig got an early break on Paes, followed by another brilliant lob from Mirza to take a 3-0 lead. A double fault by Hingis, gave Mirza and Dodig six set points at 6-0. Eventually, Dodig served an ace to take the first set 7-6.
In the opening game of the second set, Dodig missed an easy smash, off Paes' serve, and playfully asked Mirza to slap, which the Indian obliged. Another lob from Mirza, followed by an unforced error from Paes, brought the game to deuce. Mirza produced an impressive forehand cross-court winner to give an early break to her team.
Paes and Hingis were unable to put any substantial pressure on Dodig and Mirza's service games in the second set. Mirza in particular lifted her game, and was looking back to her best, after a cagey opening set.
At 4-2, Mirza and Dodig won another break point on Hingis' serve, but an unforced error from Mirza let them of the hook. But the duo continued to dominate on court, and got their match point at 5-3, on Paes' second serve. Hingis failed to control Dodig's powerful return at nets and the Number 1 seed won the second set 6-3.
