Australian Open: Bopanna-Hsieh lose in quarters

Melbourne, Jan 23 (IANS): India’s Rohan Bopanna partnering Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei lost their mixed doubles quarterfinal match of the Australian Open at Melbourne Park here Wednesday.

Playing against the Czech-Polish pairing of Kveta Peschke and Marcin Matkowski, Hsieh-Bopanna lost 2-6, 3-6 in 58 minutes at the Margaret Court Arena.

Though the Indo-Taipei duo were ahead when it came to the number of aces fired and winners, they lost out at crucial junctures not earning even a single break-point.

Their opponents on the other side, however, notched up four break points in the match of which they converted three. Also, the winning pair won more first serve points which set up the match for them.

Thursday will see more mixed doubles action for India.

Third seeds Sania Mirza and American Bob Bryan will take on unseeded Czech pairing of Lucie Hradecka and Frantisek Cermak in the quarterfinal. The winner of the match will take on Peschke-Matkowski.

Elsewhere, Mahesh Bhupathi partnering Russia’s Nadia Petrova, seeded fifth, will face Australian duo Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden. The winner of the match will be up against Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in the semifinals.