Internet Desk: Sania Mirza and Leander Paes will be on opposite ends of the net in a high-stakes Mixed Doubles finals clash at the French Open after they both won their respective matches with their partners.
Pairing with Swiss Martina Hingis, who forms the women’s doubles top duo of ‘Santina’ with Mirza, Paes defeated the French-Czech pair of Édouard Roger-Vasselin and Andrea Hlaváčková 6-3, 3-6, 10-7.
Mirza and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig beat the French pair of Kristina Mladenovic and Pierre-Hugues Herbert 4-6, 6-3, 10-6.
Both Mirza and Paes were forced to play two matches on Thursday due to a cramped schedule at Roland Garros. Earlier in the day, unseeded Paes and Hingis scored a dominating 6-4, 6-3 win over fifth seeds Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares in the quarter-finals of the clay court Major.
Mirza and Dodig, seeded second, overcame a mid-match lapse to beat the seventh seeded Yung-Jan Chan and Max Mirnyi 6-1, 3-6, 10-6 in their quarter-final.
Now, the two pairs will face off in an intriguing final at Roland Garros on Friday. Paes is just one match away from completing a ‘Career Slam’ in mixed doubles, having won the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open multiple times with different partners.
Hingis too is aiming to complete her set of Mixed Doubles slams — all her titles came in 2015 with Paes.
Mirza and Paes had met in the Australian Open mixed-doubles quarter-finals earlier this year, with the Mirza-Dodig duo prevailing 7-6, 6-3.
Mirza last won a mixed doubles Grand Slam trophy at the 2014 US Open with Brazilian partner Bruno Soares. She is eyeing a second mixed-doubles crown at Roland Garros — she won in 2012 with Mahesh Bhupathi — and her seventh Grand Slam in doubles overall.