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Sania Mirza, Rohan Bopanna and Leander Paes posted wins with their respective partners to proceed to the semifinal stage.
At the Beijing WTA Premier mandatory event, Sania Mirza and Zimbwabe’s Cara Black, seeded eighth, won their quarterfinal encounter against Mirza’s previous partner Zheng Jie and Chan Yung-Jan 6-1 6-4. They have not yer lost a set in the entire tournament and have not lost a match since their first ever together last week.
they have been on a roll after clinching the Toray Pan Pacific doubles title. They will now gace top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the semifinals. This will be the most difficult match for duo. If they manage to reach the finals, they will surely prove that they are the next best team on the tour. Mirza is also a defending finalist from the last year’s event.
They have also not yet confirmed whether they will be playing together next year. But their consistently improving performance will surely make them a very good team and after all, Sania could finally place her hands on a Women’s Doubles Grand Slam trophy with Black.
In the same venue, where the ATP 500 event is taking place, Leander Paes and Daniel Nestor, the top seeds, also cruised into the semifinals with a 7-6(8) 6-3 win over Spaniards David Marrero and Fernando Verdasco. They had first paired u for the Winston-Salem event prior to the Us Open and won it. They are also on a continuous winning streak after their first ever match together. Their opponents in the next round will be Fabio fognini and Andreas Seppi of Italy.
In another ATP 500 event at Tokyo, Rohan Bopanna and Edouard Roger-Vasselin won their quarterfinal match against the German duo of Andre Begemann and Martin Emmrich 6-1 3-6 12-10. With this victory, they are the only seeds, fourth, left in the draw. They will next face Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot. A win here could posit them better in the Race to London. They are bidding to reach the Year End Championships.
They will continue their campaign at the Shanghai Masters next week, where he and Bhupathi were runners-up to Paes and Stapanek. In this event too, Paes will be pairing up with Daniel Nestor instead of Stapanek who is playing some Challenger events to boost his singles ranking. Somdev will also play in the qualifying draw of the Shanghai Masters. Sania Mirza, however, had stated earlier that she will be playing the China Open as her final event of the year.
