Sania-Soares, Paes-Hingis pairs reach Australian Open semis

Martina Hingis of Switzerland, right, and Leander Paes of India touch hands as they play Czech Republics Andrea Hlavackova and Austrias Alexander Peya in their mixed doubles quarterfinal match at the Australian Open tennis championship in Melbourne, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 28, 2015. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Sania Mirza and Leander Paes were on course for a Australian Open showdown as they reached the mixed doubles semifinals with their respectice partners, in Melbourne on Wednesday.

Sania Mirza and her top-seeded Brazilian partner Bruno Soares carved out an easy 6-2 6-2 win over the home pair of Casey Dellacqua and John Peers in the quarterfinals, which lasted in only 53 minutes.

Seventh seeded Paes and Swiss Martina Hingis progressed from the bottom-half of the draw with a 6-3 6-1 win over fourth seeds Andrea Hlavackova from Czech Republic and Austria’s Alexander Peya.

Sania and Soares broke their rivals two times each in both the sets. They did not face any breakpoint in the opening set and saved a couple in the second set.

They now await winners of the other last-eight match between third seeds Kristina Mladenovic/Daniel Nestor and fifth seeds Cara Black/Juan Sebastian Cabal.

Paes and Hingis will face either Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh and Pablo Cuevas from Uruguay or second seeds Katarina Srebotnik from Slovakia and Marcelo Melo from Brazil.

Meanwhile, in the boys singles, Sumit Nagal’s campaign ended with a crushing 1-6 1-6 defeat against Australia’s Marc Polmans in the third round.