A tough win for the second-seeds, with Sania in sight of a second Australian Open mixed doubles title.
Sania Mirza (L) and Ivan Dodig (R) (Photo: AFP)
The second-seeded duo of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig reached the finals of the mixed doubles with a thrilling 6-4, 2-6, 1-0(2) win over home favourites Samantha Stosur and Sam Groth on Friday.
The experienced Australian duo gave stiff resistance to the Indo-Croat pair and a see-sawing first set in which both sides were broken several times raised the tension levels at the Rod Laver Arena by several notches.
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Stosur and Groth double faulted far too many times in the opening set, allowing Mirza and Dodic to make the vital breakthrough. Mirza, who is chasing her 7th Major title, was steady throughout the tie as she played the waiting game, allowing her opponents to make errors at the net.
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Groth, in particular, looked off-colour but pulled up his socks in the second set, as the unseeded pair forced the game into a super-tiebreak.
The super-tiebreak was extremely one-sided as the Indo-Croat pair surged into the lead which they never relinquished. The duo is now in sight of the Australian Open mixed doubles crown and will face the winner of the Elina Svitolina and Chris Guccione-Abigal Spears and Juan Sebastian Cabal clash on Saturday.
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