Australian Open: Sania Mirza-Rohan Bopanna pair reaches mixed doubles semifinals

Ace Indians Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna on Tuesday marched through to the mixed doubles semifinals of the Australian Open after receiving a walkover in the quarterfinals from the Latvian-Spanish pair Jelena Ostapenko & David Vega Hernandez.

The Rio Olympic semifinalists on Monday defeated Japan’s Makoto Ninomiya and Uruguay’s Ariel Behar 6-4, 7-6(11-9) in their second-round match to set up a quarterfinal clash with Ostapenko and Hernandez. The Indian duo had earlier beaten Australia’s Jaimee Fourlis and Luke Saville in the first round.

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Sania is playing her last major as the six-time Grand Slam champion and earlier this month announced that she will retire from professional tennis at Dubai Tennis Championships, a WTA 1000 event, which begins on February 19.

Sania has six major titles in doubles discipline– three in women’s doubles and as many as in mixed doubles — with her maiden triumph coming in 2009 when she partnered Mahesh Bhupathi to clinch the Australian Open mixed doubles title.