US Open Doubles Preview: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis in action on Day 6
US Open doubles action resumes on Day 6 after an eventful fifth day of play at Flushing Meadows. With the top two doubles seeds already bowing out of the competition in the mixed category, the onus is on the rest of the seeds to try and win the competition.
Sixth seeds Bopanna and Mergea were successful in their doubles match against Fyrstenberg and Gonzalez, while 8th ranked British-Aussie duo Murray and Peers continued their impressive form in the grand slam event with a 7-5 6-1 victory over Santiago Giraldo and Rameez Junaid.
Other results include wins for fourth seeds Matkowski-Zimonjic, seventh seeds Granollers-Lopez, and 12th ranked Herbert-Mahut.
Join us as we preview the men’s, women’s and doubles action in New York tonight, with Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis headlining the events for the day:
Martina Hingis/Sania Mirza (1) vs Michaella Krajicek/Barbora Strycova (13)
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis will take on Michaella Krajicek from the Netherlands and Barbora Strycova from the Czech Republic when the two doubles pairings meet in Round 3 of the US Open.
The World Number 1s have only dropped five games in the past two rounds, beating the American pair of Kaitlyn Christian and Sabrina Santamaria 6-1 6-2 and dispatching the Switzerland-Taipei team of Timea Bacsinszky and Chia-Jung Chuang 6-1 6-1.
Their 13th seeded opponents reached the third round of the competition with straightforward victories. They won their first round match 6-4 6-4 against Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith and also won the second by a similar margin, knocking out Vania King and Saisai Zheng in Round 2.
This will be the first time that the two pairs have ever faced each other in a competitive tennis match, so it should be a worthwhile watch.
Prediction: Hingis and Mirza to continue with their recent form and move on to the next round.
Jelena Jankovic/Aleksandra Krunic vs Casey Dellacqua/Yaroslava Shvedova (4)
30-year-old Jelena Jankovic may have struggled to get past the first round of the US Open singles event, but she and Aleksandra Krunic qualified to the third round of the women’s doubles event by comfortably winning their second round match against the 14th seeded Spaniards Medina Garrigues and Parra Santonja 6-2 6-2.
The Serbians got their tournament to a good start when they beat the Dutch-German pair of Annika Beck and Demi Schuurs 7-5 6-1 in round 1, and will compete with Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova in the third round at the Flushing Meadows.
The fourth-seeded Australian and Kazakh teammates survived a scare in the first round and took three sets to beat Gavrilova and Van Uytvanck 2-6 6-4 6-0, but looked more comfortable in the second round when they beat Olga Govortsova from Belarus and Lesia Tsurenko in straight sets 6-4 6-0.
There are have been no head-to-head matches between the two doubles pairings.
Prediction: A close match which will be decided in the third set, although Casey Dellacqua and Shvedova should win this one.
Andrea Hlavackova/Lucie Hradecka (7) vs Anna-Lena Groenfeld/Coco Vandeweghe
Seventh-seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka are set to face Anna-Lena Groenfeld from Germany and Coco Vandeweghe from the USA when the two pairs meet each other in the third round of the US Open grand slam.
The Czech pair reached the third round of the last grand slam of the calendar year when they disposed of the American duo of Varvara Lepchenko and Alison Riske in the first round and beat another American pair Tornado Alicia Black and Ingrid Neel in three sets 6-3 4-6 6-1.
Anna-Lena and Coco got their tournament off to a good start when they beat Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur 6-3 6-4. The unseeded pair continued their form into their second round clash against Su-Wei Hsieh from Taiwan and Anastasia Rodionova, knocking out the 10th ranked pairing 7-5 6-4 to raise some eyebrows.
The two teams have never faced each other in a match before this third round clash.
Prediction: Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka to win this one, but maybe not in straight sets.
Sara Errani/Flavia Pennetta (11) vs Raquel Kops-Jones/Abigail Spears (6)
The third round match-up between the 6th and 11th seeds is one of the most anticipated matches of Day 6 of the US Open.
Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta are slowly starting to find their groove after a slow start to the tournament as they gear up to face Americans Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, who didn’t play on Day 5 after Eugenie Bouchard and Elena Vesnina retired the match-up due to the former sustaining an injury in the locker room. Canadian Bouchard has withdrawn from all doubles events, but there is no word yet on her singles participation.
Italians Errani and Pennetta won their opening round match against American pair Falconi and Tatishvili in three sets 3-6 6-0 6-2 and followed it up with a 7-5 6-1 win over Asia Muhammad and Maria Sanchez. Their American opposition has played only one match so far, winning their first round clash against American-Canadian duo Erin Routliffe and Maya Jansen.
This will be the first competitive fixture between the Italians and the Americans although Pennetta has been involved in doubles matches against Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in the past.
Prediction: The sixth seeds to win this one, but expect the opposition to challenge them all the way