Sania-Marti storm into fil

New Delhi, Jan 27: Top seeded tennis pair of Sania Mirza and Marti Hingis hardly broke sweat on their way to victory in their 35th successive match and enter the women’s doubles fil of the Australian Open at the Melbourne Park here on Wednesday.

The Indo-Swiss pair took only 54 minutes to beat German-Czech 13th seeds Julia Goerges and Karoli Pliskova 6-1, 6-0 in the semi-fils at the Rod Laver Are. They will take on Czech seventh seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the fil to earn their eighth title on the trot.

The last four contest was going without any hiccup till 2-1 when the world’s top ranked team broke their opponents in the fourth game to go 3-1 up. Sania and Marti held their service game and broke the 13th seeds’ serve again in the sixth game to take a 5-1 advantage.

It was only a matter of time before they sealed the set in their favour in only 26 minutes.

Sania and Marti, who are both individually ranked No.1 in the world, carried the momentum into the second set to break Julia and Karoli in the first and third games to go 4-0 up.

It filly looked like the German-Czech combition would be able to get off the mark when they were 40-0 up in the fifth game, but Sania and Marti were in total demolition mode. They first brought the game to deuce and then broke their opponents for the third time in the set to make it 5-0.

Serving for the set and match, Sania wasted three matchpoint opportunities but filly clinched it when Julia’s hit went into the net to give the Indo-Swiss pair entry into the fils.

This will be Sania’s first women’s doubles fil here with her previous best coming in 2012 when she reached the semis with Russian Ele Vesni.

The top seeds complimented each other really well. While Marti was impeccable up front at the net, Sania’s ground strokes were hit so hard from the baseline that their opponents were hardly able to get near the balls.

The reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions were easily the domint pair, winning 60 points to the German-Czech pair’s 33. They also won a remarkable five breakpoint chances to none out of four opportunities for Julia and Karoli.

Earlier in the day, mixed doubles third seeds Rohan Bopan and Yung-Jan Chan were knocked out of the year’s first Major, losing their quarter-fil 2-6, 5-7 in 55 minutes to Filipino-Slovenian pairing of Treat Huey and Andreja Klepac on Show Court 2.

Bopan-Chan were second best from the very beginning, their serve broken four times in six attempts while maging to break back only once in five tries. Even though they hit more winners (25 to 19), they committed double the unforced errors than their opponents (9).

The unseeded winning pair won 59 of the total 112 points played. They converted both the break points chances they got in the first set to easily claim it in 21 minutes.

Bopan and Chan put up a fight in the second set but they couldn’t hold their serve again and were broken twice to surrender the set in 34 minutes.

In a girls’ singles third round match, Indian 10th seed Pranjala Yadlapalli lost to Russian eighth seed Astasia Potapova 5-7, 5-7 on Court No.20. In another match of the same category, Pranjala’s compatriot Karman Thandi put up a spirited fight but ultimately accepted a 6-3, 5-7, 5-7 defeat against Australian Sara Tomic on Court 6.

The two Indian girls, seeded fifth in girls’ doubles, lost as a pair too as they went down to the unseeded local combition of Jaimee Fourlis and Maddison Inglis 6-7(3), 5-7 on Court 20 in the quarter-fils. (IANS)