Sania Mirza and her partner Cara Black squandered a position of strength to go down to world number one Italian combo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in a hard-fought women’s doubles quarterfinal match at the Australian Open on Tuesday.
The sixth-seeded Indo-Zimbabwean combination lost 2-6, 6-3, 4-6.
Errani and Vinci lived up to their top billing in the opening set as they comfortably sealed it off by converting three of the five break points, while saving one of the two that their rivals got.
But Sania and Cara fought back in the second set to stun the Italian girls.
The Indo-Zimbabwean duo hit 11 winners as opposed to eight by the Italians, while they also converted three of the five break points to take the game to the decider.
In the final set, they started off with a bang and opened up a 4-1 lead. But just when it seemed that they would wrap it up easily, the top seeds came from behind to make it 4-4.
The Italian combo saved six of the eight break points to have the last laugh.
