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While Sania Mirza advanced to the women’s doubles quarter-finals, Rohan Bopanna made it through to the last-eight of mixed doubles at the 2017 US Open Tennis Championships in New York on Sunday. But it was curtains for the 18-time Grand Slam champion Leander Paes, who went down in the second round of men’s doubles.
For Sania Mirza, it wasn’t an easy day. She and China’s Peng Shuai are seeded fourth at the final Major of the year and were the favourites against the unseeded pair of Sorana Cirstea and Sara Sorribes Tormo in their third round contest.
Mirza and Peng made a blazing start to grab the opening set 6-2. They, however, failed to keep that momentum going and lost the second set. Even in the decider, things were not going the way of the fourth seeds and they found themselves trailing 0-2.
The Indo-Chinese pair finally managed to regroup after that and fought back impressively to clinch the 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(2) win in 2 hours 15 minutes.
They will next face the winner of the third round match between the fifth seeds Timea Babos/Andrea Hlavackova and Su-Wei Hsieh/Monica Niculescu.
In mixed doubles, the seventh seeds Rohan Bopanna and Gabriela Dabrowski booked their place in the quarter-finals, courtesy of a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Nicholas Monroe.
The reigning French Open champions next face the third seeds Hao-Ching Chan and Michael Venus for a place in the semi-finals.
Bopanna is the only Indian left in mixed doubles after the shock opening round defeat of the second seeds and two-time Grand Slam runners-up Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig.
Indian challenge ends in men’s doubles
Leander Paes and Purav Raja, meanwhile, came up short against the young Russian duo of Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev. The Russians held their nerves in a tight second set tie-break to notch up a 6-4, 7-6(7) win in 1 hour 27 minutes.
With Paes and Raja’s ouster, the Indian challenge came to an end in the men’s doubles section. Bopanna was the only other Indian to reach the second round where he and Pablo Cuevas were sent packing by former Australian Open winners Fabio Fognini and Simone Bolelli.
