Melbourne: India’s Sania Mirza and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau beat defending champions Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden of Australia to reach the final of the Australian Open mixed doubles final at Melbourne Park Friday.
Mirza and Tecau won 2-6, 6-3, 10-2 against the Australian duo in a match that lasted an hour and 13 minutes.
They will face France’s Kristina Mladenovic and Canada’s Daniel Nestor in the final, with Mirza just one win away from what would be her third Grand Slam mixed doubles title.
Mirza and Tecau were forced to fight back after they were completely outplayed in the first set. The Australian duo had 16 winners, while the Indo-Romanian pair managed eight, failing to earn a single break point in a set lasting just 28 minutes.
However, they came back strongly in the second, holding their serves and converting the sole break point that came their way. The Australian pair committed nine unforced errors to Mirza and Tecau’s four. The Indo-Romanian duo also managed 15 winners compared to the Australians’ seven.
Mirza last won the Australian Open mixed doubles title in 2009 with fellow countryman Mahesh Bhupathi.
