China Open: Sania-Nuria in semis

Beijing – India’s Sania Mirza and her partner Nuria Llagostera Vives moved into the women’s doubles semi-finals of China Open tennis with a come-from-behind win against Julia Goerges and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova here Thursday.

The Indo-Spanish combine, seeded fifth, won 4-6, 6-4, 16-14 against the German-Czech pair in one hour and 34 minutes in the quarter-finals.

Sania and Nuria were erratic and lost as many as eight breakpoints in the first set before conceding lead.

Sania and Nuria lost serve in the second set as well but did well to break the rivals twice to draw parity and take the match to the tie-breaker, which was an evenly contested affair.

In the men’s event, Indian duo Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna also qualified for the quarter-finals with an emphatic 6-3, 6-0 win over Chinese wild card pair of Mao-Xin Gong and Zhang Ze.