Indian ace tennis star inches closer to 'Career Slam' in mixed doubles with Martina Hingis as they take on Sania Mirza & Ivan Dodig in title clash
Paris: Leander Paes is just one step away from completing a 'Career Slam' in mixed doubles with Swiss partner Martina Hingis after beating sixth seeds Andrea Hlavackova from Czech Republic and Frenchman Edouard Roger-Vasselin 6-3, 3-6, 10-7 to enter the French Open final here yesterday.
Leander Paes and Martina Hingis, who beat Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares 6-4, 6-3 in their quarters clash. Pics/Getty Images
Paes will take on compatriot Sania Mirza and her partner Ivan Dodig after the Indo-Croatian pair beat third seeds and local favourites Kristina Mladenovic and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 4-6, 6-3, 12-10 in a thrilling semi-final contest.
Earlier in the day, unseeded Paes and Hingis scored a dominating 6-4, 6-3 win over fifth seeds Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares in the quarter-finals of the clay court Major.
Paes and Hingis are the winners of Australian Open, Wimbledon and US OPen in 2015.
Paes-Hingis dominate in QF
The Indo-Swiss pair were dominant throughout the match, using their vast experience to good effect, breaking their Brazil-Russian opponent four times in 11 attempts.
They were broken just once in five tries. Paes-Hingis won 60 of the total 111 total points played.
Sania and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig, seeded second, overcame a mid-match lapse to beat the seventh seeded Yung-Jan Chan and Max Mirnyi 6-1, 3-6, 10-6 in their quarter-final.
Sania and her Croatian partner were able to get into their stride from the beginning and pocketed the first game quite easily against the Chinese Taipei-Belarusian pair.
They then broke their opponents to move ahead 2-0 in the first set. And though Chan and Mirnyi tried catching up, the Indo-Croatian pair remained ahead.
Before long it was 5-0 and Sania-Ivan ensured there were no hiccups as they pocketed the opening set 6-1.
Jan-Max scripted a turnaround in the second set. The Chinese Taipei-Belarusian pair rallied back into the contest by pocketing three back to back games to march to a
4-1 lead.
Sania-Dodig stretched
Sania-Ivan broke back to reduce the margin to 3-5 but Jan-Max sealed the set by winning their service game to stretch the match into a deciding tie-breaker.
Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig beat Yung-Jan Chan and Max Mirnyi 6-1, 3-6, 10-6
The Sania-Ivan pair was brilliant in the tie breaker and had things under control from the very beginning. They led 8-5 at one stage and finally bought the shutters down at 10-6.
Sania last won a mixed doubles Grand Slam trophy at 2014 US Open with her then partner Soares. While Paes has nine mixed doubles crowns, Sania has won three in her career.
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