New York: India’s Sania Mirza has made it to the semi-finals of the US Open with her women’s doubles partner from China, Jie Zheng here on Wednesday. The 10th seed pair of Mirza-Zheng stunned the fourth seeded Su Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng in the quarterfinals by 6-4, 7-6 (5) at Flashing Meadows.
The Indo-Chinese duo was going neck-in-neck in this competition where they gave the fourth seeded pair of Hsieh-Peng a run for their money. Mirza-Zheng managed to break them once in the opening set and that was good enough to claim the set.
The second set was more like a first set but this time fourth seeded Hsieh-Peng didn’t commit the mistake of letting their serves break. As the match went into the tie-breaker, Sania and Zheng handled the pressure really well and scored five points to settle the tie and make it to the last four of the tournament. It’s going to be for the first time that Sania will be making her semi-final appearance at Flashing Meadows.
With this semi-final appearance, she has now reached the last-four stage in the women's doubles at all the four major tournaments. She was a beaten finalist in the 2011 French Open, partnering Vesnina, whom she is likely to face in the last four this time.
Azarenka sets up a semi-final clash with Pennetta
Meanwhile in the all-Italian quarter-final of the women’s singles, Flavia Pennetta outplayed the 10th seeded compatriot Roberta Vinci by 6-4, 6-1 on Wednesday in the US Open. With this victory at Arthur Ashe Stadium, Pennetta will be making her first semi-final appearance at any major tournament.
Pennetta will next face Belarus second seed Victoria Azarenka.
Azarenka pulled off an emphatic win over Daniela Hantuchova by 6-2, 6-3 to set her semi-final clash with Pennetta.
