The world number one pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis today stormed into the semi-finals of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season. The Indo-Swiss duo defeated the German-American team of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Coco Vandeweghe, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.As a pair, this was Sania and Hingis' 34th victory in a row. They are now 11 wins away from breaking the 1990 record of 44 straight victories by Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova.In the Singles, world number one Serena Williams today sailed into the semi-finals beating fifth seed Maria Sharapova for the 18th consecutive time. The 6-time Australian Open champion won the quarter-final in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1.Serena is just one Grand Slam short of tying with Steffi Graf in winning the most number of Grand Slam titles in the Open Era. Graf had bagged 22 titles, while Serena is second at 21. Besides, the world number one American is 3 titles shy of Margaret Court who has an all-time record of winning 24 Grand Slam trophies.In the semi-finals, Serena will take on fourth placed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.In Men's Singles, world number three Roger Federer booked a semi-final berth beating sixth seed Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic, 7-6, 6-2, 6-4. In Mixed Doubles, Sania Mirza and Leander Paes, with their team-mates, progressed to the quarter-finals. The duo of Paes and Martina Hingis defeated the Jean-Julien Rojer and Sloane Stephens, 6-1, 6-2, while top seeds Sania, and her Croatian team-mate Ivan Dodig beat the Kazakh-Pak team of Yaroslava Shvedova and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi, 7-5, 6-2. Sania and Dodig will face Paes and Hingis in the quarter-finals.
News On AIR | January 26, 2016 2:30 PM
Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis cruise into Australian Open semifinals