MELBOURNE: Ace Indian tennis players Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna sailed into the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open here on Monday. The Indian pair defeated Japan's Makoto Ninomiya and Uruguay's Ariel Behar 6-4, 7-6(11-9) in their second-round match to set up a quarterfinal clash with Latvian-Spanish duo Jelena Ostapenko and David Vega Hernandez.
Sania and Bopanna, the Rio Olympic semifinalists, had earlier beaten Australia's Jaimee Fourlis and Luke Saville in the first round.
The Indian pair drew first blood and broke the Ninomiya-Behar pair in the third game but the duo responded immediately to level the score. But the Indians then make it 4-3 and quickly raced to a set lead.
Both the pairs went toe-to-toe in the second as the hard-fought set ended with the Indian pair triumphing 11-9 in the tie-breaker, keeping the Indian challenge alive at the year's first Grand Slam.
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