Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna on Tuesday stormed into the combined doubles semi-finals of the Australian Open after the pair obtained a walkover within the quarter-finals. The Indian pair was to play in opposition to the Latvian and Spanish pair of Jelena Ostapenko and David Vega Hernandez however mechanically entered the final 4 after getting a walkover.
Mirza, competing in a Grand Slam for the final time, and Bopanna took 1 hour and 17 minutes to beat the Japanese-Uruguayan pair of Makota Ninomiya and Ariel Behar 6-4, 7-6(9).
Let’s go forward 💪🏽🇮🇳 @MirzaSania #Australian Open pic.twitter.com/NIfu9PNKN0
— Rohan Bopanna (@rohanbopanna) January 24, 2023
The Indian group is but to drop a set within the combined group competitors. They now await the winner of the quarterfinals between third seeds Desirea Krawczyk and Neil Skupski and the pair of Taylor Townsend and Jamie Murray.
Bopanna and his associate tenth seed Matthew Ebden crashed out within the first spherical of the boys’s doubles occasion, whereas Mirza and her Kazakh associate Ana Danilina crashed out within the second spherical of the ladies’s doubles occasion.
Ramkumar Ramanathan and his Mexican teammates Miguel Angel Reyes-Varela, Yuki Bhambri and Saketh Myneni had been additionally knocked out within the first spherical.
Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan and N Sriram Balaji had reached the second spherical earlier than bowing out. No Indian participated within the males’s singles competitors.
Sania. In an Instagram submit, she clarified about her final efficiency on the Australian Open. In an emotional be aware that was captioned – “Life Update”, Mirza wrote, “Thirty (sure, 30!) years in the past a 6-year-old woman from Nasr School, Hyderabad, discovered to play tennis as a result of she felt she Too quick. The combat of our goals began at 6!”
“With nice hope regardless of all the percentages in opposition to us, we dare to dream of sometime taking part in within the Grand Slam and representing our nation with honor on the highest stage within the sport. As I look again on my profession now, not solely did I get to play effectively over half a century of Grand Slam tournaments, however I used to be lucky sufficient to win a number of of them by the grace of God.
It seemed like Mirza and Bopanna would cruise to a cushty win as they had been damaged within the second set, however Ninomiya and Behar fought again strongly to pressure a tie-break. Mirza and Bopanna then squandered a number of match factors however obtained the job finished in the long run, incomes a thunderous applause from the Indian followers on the stadium.
Earlier within the event, the Indian pair defeated Australian wild playing cards Jamie Fourlis and Luke Saville 7-5, 6-3 within the opening spherical.
Mirza’s girls’s doubles journey in Grand Slam tennis got here to an finish on Monday when she and her Kazakh associate Anna Danilina had been crushed by the Belgian group of Ukrainians Angelina Kalinina and Alison van Uytvank in three units.
With inputs from TheIndianEXPRESS
