Sania-Martina enter final; Bopanna’s campaign over at Aus Open

Sania Mirza sailed into the mixed doubles semifinals to set up an important clash against Leander Paes and his Swiss doubles partner Martina Hingis – after both the Indians made the quarterfinals with their respective partners in the Australian Open on Tuesday.

The Indo-Swiss pair took only 54 minutes to beat German-Czech 13th seeds Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova 6-1, 6-0 in the semi-finals at the Rod Laver Arena.

Martina Hingis (R) of Switzerland and Sania Mirza (L) of India celebrate after winning WTA’s women’s doubles final match against Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain in Singapore, Nov. 1, 2015.

Hingis, meanwhile, as one of the greatest players of all time, has titles at the singles, doubles AND mixed doubles at the Australian Open – all multiple times. This is third straight grand slam final for the celebrated duo Sania and Martina after winning Wimbledon and US Open previous year.

The top seeds, who dropped a rare set in the previous round, were back to their imperious best, triumphing 6-1, 6-0 to stretch their unbeaten streak to 35 matches. They have also won back-to-back titles at the Brisbane and Sydney International events, before starting their Australian Open campaign.

The seventh-seeded Kerber, who had never gone beyond the fourth round at Melbourne Park before, blasted past the risky Azarenka 6-3, 7-5 in her first win against the Belarusian.