Indian Wells (USA), Mar 13:
On a mixed day for India, Sania Mirza and Cara Black toppled second seeds to reach the women’s doubles semifinals even as Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek crashed out of the men’s event at ATP/WTA Indian Wells tournament here.
Fifth seeds Sania and Cara shocked second seeded Russian pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-4 6-1 in one hour and 11 minutes in the quarterfinal contest.
They face eighth seeded combination of Lucie Hradecka from Czech Republic and Jie Zheng from China in their first semifinal of the season.
In the men’s doubles quarterfinals, Paes and his Czech partner Stepanek, seeded fourth, went down fighting against star Swiss combo of Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka.
The unseeded Swiss team beat the Indo-Czech pair 3-6 7-6 (6) 4-10 in an hour and 19 minutes battle here last night.
While Paes and Stepanek could convert just one out of three break points, Federer and Warwinka managed to convert two of the three to prevail over their higher seeded rivals.
In the semi-finals, the Swiss combo will face Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares.
With Paes crashing out of the event, India’s campaign in the men’s tournament has ended, as Rohan Bopanna along with his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi had already lost to the same Swiss opponents earlier during the competition. (PTI)
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