New Delhi: Indian mixed doubles pair Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi made it to the Australian Open final on Friday after they defeated Nathalie Dechy of France and Andy Ram of Israel in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 in the first semi-final.
The duo will face the Chinese-Siberian pair of Sun Tiantian and Nenad Zimonjic. Tiantian and Zimonjic defeated Yan Zi of China and Mark Knowles of Bahamas, 4-6, 7-5, 10-6 in a closely fought battle that went into tiebreak even in the final set.
With their win, the unseeded Indian pair has kept alive Indian hopes at the Australian Open. Sania had earlier made an early exit from women's singles after she lost her third round match to Venus Williams.
Bhupathi, on the other hand, had lost his men's doubles match on Thursday after his team (with Mark Knowles) lost 6-4, 6-4 to the Israeli pair of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram in the semi-finals.
The sixth seeded Indo-Bahamas duo, who had beaten top seeds and world No.1 American pair of Mike and Bob Bryan, failed to capitalise on their chances as they frittered away a total of six break points and were broken once in each set.
There was however disappointment in the junior boys singles as Yuki Bhambri of Delhi lost his semi-final match to local hope Bernard Tomic. Yuki put up a spirited fight before going down 0-6, 7-5, 1-6.
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