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Australian Open: Sania-Dodig upset holders Hingis-Paes

Last updated on: January 28, 2016 15:08 IST

Sania Mirza of India and Ivan Dodig of Croatia during their mixed doubles match

IMAGE: India's Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig of Croatia during their mixed doubles match at the Australian Open. Photograph: Michael Dodge/Getty Images

Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig of Croatia proved too good for defending champions Martina Hingis of Switzerland and India's Leander Paes, winning their mixed doubles quarter-final 7-6(7-1), 6-3 at the Australian Open, on Thursday.

They will face the fifth seeded pair of Elena Vesnina of Russia and Bruno Soares of Brazil for a place in the final.

Paes and Martina broke Dodig's serve in the first game of the opening set but the top seeds leveled the score in the sixth, Paes dropping his service.

It went on serve thereafter before Sania-Dodig raced to a 6-0 lead in the ensuing tie-break, and sealed it at 7-1.

Paes was broken again in the opening game of the second set. The top seeds were never in trouble thereafter.

Sania and Dodig had beaten the unseeded Kazakh-Pakistani duo of Yaroslava Shvedova and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi 7-5, 6-2 in their previous round, while Paes and Hingis got the better of the American-Dutch pair of Sloane Stephens and Jean-Julien Rojer 6-1, 6-2.

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