Sania-Tecau sail into semis of Australian Open

India's Sania Mirza and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau stormed into the semifinals of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open with straight sets victory over Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Julia Georges, here today.

Sixth seed Sania and Tecau hardly broke a sweat to prevail over the unseeded Aisam-Julia combination 6-3 6-4 in their quarterfinal clash that lasted just 63 minutes.

The Indo-Romanian duo will play Australian pair of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden in the semifinals.

The unseeded Australian pair stunned second seeds Katarina Srebotnik of Sloivakia and India's Rohan Bopanna 7-5 6-3 in another quarterfinal yesterday.

Sania and Tecau got three opportunities to break their opponents in the opening set, out of which they converted one, which was enough for the Indo-Romanian pair to pocket the set in 28 minutes.

In the next set, Sania and Tecau broke their opponents in the ninth game to serve out the set in 35 minutes and book a place in the last four stage.

In veteran Leander Paes, another Indian is in fray in the mixed doubles event.
Paes and his Slovakian partner Daniela Hantuchova will meet Kristina Mladenovic of France and Daniel Nestor in another quarterfinal tie later in the day.