Sania Mirza and American Rajeev Ram worked their way past the tricky Aussie-Dutch pairing of Ellen Perez and Matwe Middlekoop 7-6 (8-6), 6-4 to make the Australian Open quarterfinals.
The comeback mom, in her last year on the Tour, worked her world-class lobs and the angles she gets on her fiery forehand, to get the team in a good position.
Ram, the world No. 4, picked up his serve after getting broken in his opening service game, to push the combine through. The Indo-American pairing struck not long after, breaking Middlekoop, a lefty, to level at three-all. They then traded breaks to push the set to tiebreak where Sania and Ram did well to stay ahead and close out on their first opportunity.
The tie-break perhaps weighed on the Dutch-Aussie duo, who were broken in the first game of the second set.
“It was a much better match from us today, it was very intense for a mixed,” Sania said, adding, “when he serves like that I have so much confidence.”
Off first serves the Indo-American combine won 74 percent of the points.
