Sania Mirza and Cara Black storm into Indian Wells semi-finals

Sania Mirza and Cara Black

Indian Wells (California), March 13 (IANS): India’s Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black knocked out second-seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina to enter the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open tennis tournament here.

Fifth-seeded Mirza and Black won 6-4, 6-1, and will now play fourth seeds Czech Lucie Hradecka and China’s Jie Zheng who defeated Kveta Peschke and Katerina Srebotnik in a hard-fought quarter-final which ended in a super tie-break, 7-5, 5-7, 10-3.

The Indo-Zimbabwean pair of Sania and Black was broken three times during the quarterfinal, but they were even more severe on their opponents’ serve, breaking them six times. Vesnina and Makarova committed as many as seven double faults during the match, which made Sania and Black’s job a little easier.

While the first set was competitive, the Russians had no answer to Sania’s power off her forehand in the second. Black was her usual competent self, especially at the net, and the duo will go into the semifinals riding a wave of confidence.