Madrid Open: Sania Mirza - Martina Hingis pair knocked out
The Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis juggernaut finally came to a halt at the Madrid Open, when the pair succumbed to its first defeat since their teaming up early this year. Despite taking a tightly fought first set, the Indo-Swiss pair was unable to close out the match against the determined duo of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova.
Mirza-Hingis pair lost the quarter-final match, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 11-9 (a tiebreak being played in place of a third set).
The top-seeded duo looked on course to winning their third title this season, having dispatched their quarter-final opponents Janette Husarova and Raluca Olaru in a match that lasted a mere one hour.
Leander Paes crashes out while Bopanna sails through
There was more bad news for India as Leander Paes, partnering Daniel Nestor too lost his second round match to Feliciano Lopez and Max Mirnyi.
The Paes-Nestor pair put up a strong fight in the opening set which was pushed to a tiebreak, but were unable to deny the dominant Lopez-Mirnyi duo a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win.
However, Rohan Bopanna kept the Indian flag flying at Madrid Open as he and his partnerFlorin Mergea beat Edouard Roger-Vasselin and Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 4-6, 10-5 to book a spot in the quarter-finals.