Wimbledon: Sania-Martina enter quarters, Bopanna knocked out

London, July 4 (IANS) India's tennis star Sania Mirza stormed into the women's doubles quarter-finals of the Wimbledon tennis tournament while Rohan Bopanna was knocked out in the men's doubles third round here on Monday.

The top seeded Sania and her partner Switzerland's Martina Hingis outclassed United States' Christina McHale and Latvian Jelena Ostapenko 6-1, 6-0 in just 46 minutes in the third round played at court 17 to storm into the quarters of the tournament.

While the sixth seeded pair of Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea went down 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-8 to tenth seeded pairing of Finnish Henri Kontinen and his partner Australia's John Peers in two hour and 55 minutes played at the court 14.

Sania-Martina began the match on an aggressive note by winning 19 out of 28 first serve points and two out of five break points to take the opening set 6-1 at ease in a few minutes time.

Christina-Jelena went through some tough times once again in the second set as top seeded Indo-Swiss pair won 13 out of 16 first serve points and three out of five break points to win the set 6-0 and seal a place in the last four.

On the other hand, the sixth seeded Indo-Romanian pair of Bopanna and Mergea went down 6-2, 3-6, 4-6, 7-6 (6), 6-8 to 10th seeded pairing of Finnish Henri Kontinen and his partner Australia's John Peers in two hours and 55 minutes.

The sixth seeded pair started the match on a positive note taking an important 4-0 lead and then eventually won the opening 6-2 to grab the advantage. Bopanna-Mergea won 9 out of 10 first serve points in the set. The pair broke their opponent twice in the set.

But Kontinen-Peers made a strong comeback in the second set winning 13 out of 15 first serve points and breaking the sixth seeds once to take the second set 6-3.

In the third set, the 10th seeded Finnish and Australian pair carried on the momentum from the second set to win 18 out of 22 first serve points and breaking Bopanna-Mergea once to win the third set 6-4 and take a 2-1 led in the tie at court No.14.

Bopanna-Mergea staged a much needed comeback in the fourth set to stay in the match as they won 17 out of 18 first serve points along with three aces to take the game into tri-break. The Indo-Romanian pair prevailed in the tri-break to win it 8-6 and come to 2-2 level terms and take the match to fifth and deciding set.

The fifth and final set saw an even tougher battle between the two sides but Kontinen-Peers held their nerves to win 25 out of 31 first serve points and also earn a break point as the 10th seeds stunned the sixth seeds 8-6 in the fifth set to book a place in the quarters.

--IANS

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