Indian pair Sania Mirza & Rohan Bopanna advances to mixed doubles quarter-finals in Australian Open Tennis

Indian pair Sania Mirza & Rohan Bopanna advances to mixed doubles quarter-finals in Australian Open Tennis

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In Australian Open Tennis, the Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna advanced to the mixed doubles quarter-finals in Melbourne yesterday, January 23. 

The Indian pair defeated the Uruguayan and Japanese pair of Ariel Behar and Makato Ninomiya 6-4, 7-6. Mirza and Bopanna will now lock horns with the Latvian and Spanish duo of Jelena Ostapenko and David Vega Hernandez in their Last eight fixture today, January 24.

In Men’s Singles, fourth seed Novak Djokovic sailed into the quarterfinals, brushing past home favourite 22nd seed Alex de Minaur to 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 on Rod Laver Arena. With the win, the Serbian moved a step closer to a 10th title at Melbourne Park, and 22 major crowns.

Djokovic will meet fifth seed Andrey Rublev for a semi-final berth after the Russian toppled Danish teen Holger Rune after a tense 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 7-6 contest in the fourth round. In the other matches of the day, Debutant Ben Shelton pulled out a 6-7, 6-2, 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 victory over J.J. Wolf in an all-American matchup in John Cain Arena.

89th-ranked Shelton meets yet another unseeded American, 35th-ranked Tommy Paul, who eliminated 24th seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain 6-2, 4-6, 6-2, 7-5. Earlier, World Number 4 Caroline Garcia became the latest top seed to suffer an early exit at the first Grand Slam of the year. She was knocked out of the Australian Open in the fourth round by Magda Linette of Poland, 6-7, 4-6.

The 45th-ranked Linette will now face former world number one Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic for a place in the semi-final. 30th seed Pliskova overpowered Chinese veteran Zhang Shuai, 6-0, 6-4. Fifth seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus beats Swiss player Belinda Bencic 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals. She will face Croatian Donna Vekić in the last eight, who ended the run of the 17-year-old Linda Fruhvirtova of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.