Mixed doubles top seeds Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig went down today to the Russian-Brazilian pair of Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares, who beat them in straight sets – 7-5, 7-6 to progress to the finals of the Australian Open.
The Indo-Croat pair had earlier beat two of Mirza’s doubles partners – one former, one current – Leander Paes and Martina Hingis – at the quarterfinals of the Open, catching them in straight sets.
There was not a massive gap separating the pairs, however, with Mirza and Dodig managing 16 winners to their rivals’ 20 during the course of the match – likely what let them down, as they only committed one more unforced error than their competitors.
Each team successfully broke the other twice, and it was a fairly close match, with Vesnina and Soares up two breaks against Mirza and Dodig, who broke back on only one occasion.
The second set was far tighter, with each team breaking the other twice and virtually nothing separating them in terms of errors committed.
Vesnina and Soares hit 20 winners, and then led the Indo-Croat pair relatively closely in the tiebreak to send them packing from the tournament.
Elsewhere, Mirza and women’s doubles partner Hingis, also top seeded at the tournament, won the title today, beating the all-Czech Olympic medal-winning pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.
