LONDON, July 6: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna scored contrasting victories to make it to the quarterfinals of the the Wimbledon Championships with their respective partners but Leander Paes’ campaign ended following defeat in a thrilling five-setter, here today.
Continuing their dominating run, top seeds Sania and Swiss legend Martina Hingis downed 16th seeded Spanish team of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-4 6-3 in just 66 minutes.
Sania and Hingis broke their rivals twice in the opening set and three times in the second set. They lost serve once in the opening set and twice in the second.
In the men’s doubles, it was a tough day for Bopanna and Paes as they had to strive quite hard in the grass court Grand Slam.
Ninth seeded Indo-Romanian pair of Bopanna and Florin Mergea faced stiff resistance from Lukasz Kubot from Poland and Max Mirnyi from Belarus before prevailing 7-6(4) 6-7(5) 7-5 (5) 7-6 (8) in a marathon third round, which lasted three hours and 19 minutes.
It was scintillating tennis by the two pairs as all the sets were decided via tie-breakers.
11th seeded Paes and Daniel Nestor dug deep into their reserves to make a comeback from two sets down but eventually lost 3-6 5-7 6-3 6-2 2-6 to Austria’s Alexander Peya and Brazilian Bruno Soares in their third round, which lasted two hours 42 minutes.
Paes’ challenge is still alive in the mixed doubles where he has reached the second round with Hingis.
In the boys singles, Sumit Nagal crashed out after suffering a 7-5 2-6 4-6 defeat against Juan Pablo Ficovich from Argentina in the opening round. (PTI)
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