Eyeing their eight title of the season, Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis entered the semi-finals of the China Open on Thursday.
Fresh from their Wuhan Open triumph, the top seeds managed to prevail over the German-Czech pair of Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova 7-6(5), 6-4 in their quarterfinal match that lasted an hour and 20 minutes.
The Indo-Swiss combination has bagged seven women’s doubles titles this year so far, including two Grand Slams — Wimbledon and the US Open — since they started playing together in March.
Their WTA titles together this year include Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Guangzhou and Wuhan.
They won their last three tournaments without dropping a single set.
Djokovic extends winning run
Beijing: Novak Djokovic matched Jimmy Connors for the second-longest unbeaten record at an ATP Tour event by beating Chinese wild card Zhang Ze 6-2, 6-1 on Thursday to improve to 26-0 at the China Open.
Djokovic has won five titles at the China Open in the past six years, excluding 2011, when he didn’t play the tournament.
The top-ranked Serbian player said the conditions in Beijing simply suited his game well.
“I feel very pleasant playing on the center court,” he said. “I guess as I keep coming back each year with that positive record, obviously gives me more confidence knowing that I played so well in the past on this court.”
On the women’s side, the two U.S. Open finalists from Italy — Flavia Pennetta and Roberta Vinci — both lost in the third round.