Sania-Ram pair cruises into mixed doubles quarterfinals at Australian Open

The unseeded Indo-American duo took one hour 27 minutes to dispatch Australian Perez and Dutch Middelkoop 7-6 (8/6),6-4 in the second round clash on Court 3.

Melbourne: India’s Sania Mirza and her American partner Rajeev Ram advanced to the mixed doubles quarterfinals of the Australian Open with a straight set win over Ellen Perez and Matwe Middelkoop here on Sunday.

The unseeded Indo-American duo took one hour 27 minutes to dispatch Australian Perez and Dutch Middelkoop 7-6 (8/6),6-4 in the second round clash on Court 3.

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Mirza and Ram will now face the winners of another second round, all Australian tie between Sam Stosur and Matthew Ebden and Jaimee Fourlis and Jason Kubler, in the quarterfinals.

Mirza and Ram had got the better of Serbia’s Aleksandra Krunic and Nikola Cacic in the first round.

Earlier this week, the six-time Grand Slam winner Mirza had been knocked out in the first round of the women’s doubles event.

Mirza, who will retire after the 2022 season, is the only Indian remaining in fray in the season’s first Grand Slam after Rohan Bopanna and his Croatian partner Darija Jurak Schreiber made a first-round exit from the mixed doubles event on Saturday.