Rio Olympics: Sania-Bopanna in mixed doubles quarter-finals
Indian duo of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna entered the quarter-finals of the mixed doubles event of tennis competition at the Rio Olympics with a straight-set win over Australian pair of Samantha Stosur and John Peers here today.Â
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Sania and Bopanna, who are being touted as India's medal hope at the Olympics, won their opening round match 7-5 6-4 in 73 minutes.
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The fourth seeded Indian pair broke their opponents and gained an upper hand in the opening set by going 5-4 up to serve for the set.Â
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But they conceded the advantage in the next game itself and were broken back with scoreline levelled at 5-5.Â
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However, there was more drama in store as exchange of break points continued with Sania and Bopanna stealing away the advantage yet again, making it 6-5 and serving for the opening set once more.Â
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This time the Indians did not falter and wrapped up the first set in their favour 7-5. Sania and Bopanna had three set points as they bagged the opening set in 36 minutes.Â
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In the second set, Sania and Bopanna were patchy to start with as they struggled to even keep their own serve.Â
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But even the Australians struggled to keep their service. And a double fault from John Peers gifted the Indians an early break and they took a 3-2 lead before holding on to their own service game to surge ahead 4-2.Â
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Although Bopanna started off with two double faults in India's service game, the Indians recovered well to consolidate the break.Â
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It was just a matter of holding the serve thereafter and the Indian duo did just that to seal the second set in 37 minutes and walk away with the match.Â
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In the quarterfinals, the Indian duo will take on the unseeded Great Britain pair of Andy Murray and Heather Watson who beat Spanish combo of David Ferrer and Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3 6-3 in another first round match.Â
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Four years ago in London, Sania, partnering with Leander Paes, made it to the mixed doubles quarter-finals.Â
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Earlier, the Indians had suffered first round defeats in both men's and women's doubles events in Rio Olympics.