Sania-Tecau march into Australian Open semis, Paes-Hantuchova out

Melbourne, Jan 23 (IANS) Sania Mirza with her Romanian partner Horia Tecau cruised into the mixed doubles semi-finals at the Australian Open here Thursday while Leander Paes and Slovakia’s Daniel Hantuchova lost their quarter-final match to the Canadian-French combine of Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic.

Sania-Tecau beat Juila Goerges of Germany and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan 6-3, 6-4 in a little over an hour. They next meet Australia’s Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden, who upset second seeds Rohan Bopanna and Katarina Srebotnik Wednesday.

Sania has won the mixed doubles title once at Melbourne, achieving the feat with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009. The duo finished runners-up in 2008.

Later Thursday, Paes-Hantuchova lost 3-6, 3-6 to Nestor-Mladenovic in 62 minutes.

With the loss, Paes’ challenge in the tournament came to an end. He and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek lost in the men’s doubles quarter-finals.