Ranked No. 2 in the Australian Open, Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig made it to the final of mixed doubles today. They edged past the home team of Samantha Strosur and Sam Groth by 6-4, 2-6, (10-5). It was an interesting see-saw battle between the two and finally went in favor of Indian-Croatian pair. They will be playing in their first ever final together.
The journey for them so far has been exciting and grabbing. Starting their journey from round one, they defeated the pair of Laura Siegemund (GER) and Mate Pavic (CRO) by 7-5, 6-4. Round two wasn’t easy at all but yet they beat the pair of Saisai Zheng (CHN) and Alexander Peya (AUT) by 2-6, 6-3, 10-6. Moving ahead in quarterfinals the pair was facing Gabriela Dabrowaski (CAN) and Rohan Bopanna (IND). Although Sania knew the game style of both the player but this match turned out to be more interesting. Leading in the first game by 6-4 the No. 2 pair lost in second set by 3-6. It was the third and decider set that went till the last moment where they won it by 12-10.
Today in the semi-final, Sania and Ivan were up against home favorites Samantha and Sam. The first game was a tough battle between the pairs as the Australian duo was leading by 4-2. It took time for Indo-Croatian player to realize that this was high time for them to hit the gear and they broke the Aussies twice, before holding on to their individual serves. The Indo-Croatian pair won four consecutive games to take the first set by 6-4.
But in second set, the Aussies pair stormed back into the match with a dominant show and they broke the serve of Sania twice. In just 31 minutes the Indo-Croatian pair lost the second set by 2-6. The pair tried to pull back the match and finish it in two sets but the determination of the Aussies took the match to third and final set.
It was the nerve breaking third set that went to tie-break. The Aussies were trailing by 3-4 when Groth lost both the points on his serve and Indo-Croatian pair took full advantage of the game to open up a five-point gap. Later Australian pair failed to close the gap and lost the decider set by 10-5. In the final tomorrow they will be up against Abigail Spears (USA) and Juan Sebastian Cabal (COL). Hold your nerve and hope that the day will be for Indo-Croatian pair.