Paes, Sania in semi-finals of China Open

Leander Paes and Sania Mirza entered the semi-finals of the China Open, winning their respective doubles quarter-finals, in Beijing, on Thursday.

Paes and Canada’s Daniel Nestor beat the Spanish combination of Fernando Verdasco and David Marrero 7-6(10-8), 6-3 in 83 minutes.

The Indo-Canadian pair, which won the Winston-Salem Open in August, will take on Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi.

The Italian pair got the better of third seeds Aisam-ul Haq Qureshi of Pakistan and Jean-Julien Roger of the Netherlands 6-2, 7-5 in another quarter-final.

Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black also notched a straight-games’ victory, beating Chinese Taipei's Yung-Jan Chan and Jie Zheng.

The eight seeded India-Zimbabwe pair won 6-4, 6-1.

Sania and Cara, who won the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last week, converted four break-points out of nine that came there way and also had a better first serve points percentage than their opponents.

They will meet the top seeded Italian combination of Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani next.

The Italians beat Kristina Mladenovic-Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 6-4 in their quarter-final.

Image: Sania Mirza (left) and Cara Black of Zimbabwe

Photograph: Koji Watanabe/Getty Images