Sania-Marti in semis; Paes, Bopan out of Cincinti Masters

Cincinti, Aug 22: Top seeded women’s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Marti Hingis advanced but the other Indians participating in the Cincinti Masters didn’t enjoy such luck as Leander Paes and Rohan Bopan were knocked out from the men’s doubles event in the quarter-fils.

The Indo-Swiss pair of Sania and Marti brushed aside the challenge of American wildcards Christi Mchale and CoCo Vandeweghe 6-4, 6-1 to reach the semi-fils here on Friday. They set up a showdown with Chinese Taipei pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan in the last four stage of the hard court tourment.

In the men’s doubles section, Paes and Swiss star Stanislas Wawrinka went down fighting 6-3, 2-6, 12-14 against Spain’s Feliciano Lopez and Belarus’ Max Mirnyi in a quarter-fil contest. In another quarter-fil, fifth seeded Indo-Romanian pair of Bopan and Florin Mergea lost another keenly fought contest 1-6, 6-1, 12-14 to second seeded Croat-Brazil Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo. IANS