Sports
Paes enters Australian Open final, Sania ousted
Melbourne, Jan 30
Indian tennis ace Leander
Paes reached yet another Grand Slam final when he made it in to the
summit clash of the Australian Open, partnering Swiss veteran Martina
Hingis in mixed doubles at the Rod Laver Arena here Friday.
However,
it was the end of the road for top seeds Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares
in the other semi-final of the same category when they lost 6-3, 2-6,
8-10 in one hour and 14 minutes to French-Canadian third seeds Kristina
Mladenovic and Daniel Nestor.
In the first match of the day, Paes
and Hingis had a rather contrasting victory. Though they finished the
match in two sets, it took them an hour and 14 minutes to seal the deal
7-5, 6-4.
Their unseeded opponents Su-Wei Hsieh (Chinese Taipei)
and Pablo Cuevas (Uruguay) broke them once in the first set but the
Indo-Swiss combine went one better to take the first set.
In the
second set, Cuevas and Hsieh got two chances to break the seventh seeds
but Paes-Hingis made sure they saved both the points, and in return,
broke the Chinese Taipei-Uruguayan duo on their third attempt.
This
is Paes' fifth Australian Open mixed doubles final, having won the
crown twice in 2003 and 2010, while Hingis won the crown in 2006 with
India's Mahesh Bhupathi. The 34-year-old Swiss has also won the singles
title here three times -- 1997, 1998, 1999.
Later on the Margaret Court Arena, Mirza and Soares looked well on course when they won the first set in 28 minutes.
But
the match changed its route in the second set when Mladenovic and
Nestor turned the tables and clinched the second set with ease, pushing
the match into the decider.
The super tie-break was a touch and
go affair and the third seeds took their chances to kitty the match and
proceed to the final where they will take on Paes and Hingis.