Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina showed nerves of steel under pressure as they shocked second seeds Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond to breeze into the women’s doubles semifinal of the Australian Open on Tuesday.
The sixth-seeded Indo-Russian pair staved off very strong resistance from the Americans for a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6) win in the marathon quarterfinal, which lasted three hours and five minutes.
The deciding third set lasted 93 minutes, which was more than the duration of the first two sets. Sania and Elena saved eight breakpoints in the third set, apart from converting two and dropping their serve twice in the final set.
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In the match tiebreak, the two pairs were going neck and neck but Sania and Elena held their nerves and clinched the issue. Sania and Elena will now fight it out with the Russian combo of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva for a place in the summit clash.