India’s Sania Mirza and her partner Peng Shuai had to battle hard to seal their place in the semi-finals of the China Open in Beijing on Friday.
The third-seeded Indo-Chinese pair of Sania and Peng came from a set down to beat fifth seeded Czech pair of Barbara Strycova and Katerina Siniakova 4-6, 6-2, 10-7 in the quarter-finals.
Sania and Peng will now face Swiss ace Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-jan of Chinese Taipei in the last-four round on Saturday. Sania-Peng and Hingis-Chan recently met at the US Open semi-final, a contest that the latter pair won 6-4, 6-4.
Hingis and Chan, though, were halted in their tracks in the final by the dominant Lucie Hradecka and Siniakova. Interestingly, Sania had played two of her former doubles partners – Strycova and Hingis – in consecutive games at the US Open too.
In the US Open semi-final, Hingis and Chan made a stunning comeback in the first set to post a straight-set win.
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