Australian Open 2023: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna in quarters

MELBOURNE: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna moved into the quarterfinals of the Australian Open mixed doubles with a convincing 6-4, 7-6 (11-9) win over the alternates, Japan’s Makoto Ninomiya and Ariel Behar of Uruguay, on Monday. Sania, who won the mixed doubles title here in 2009 partnering Mahesh Bhupathi, is playing her last Grand Slam. Bopanna, the oldest player in the field at Melbourne Park, and Sania started strong, breaking Ninomiya in the fifth game to take the early initiative. In the second set, the Indians had seven chances to break, but failed to drive home the advantage. In the last-eight on Tuesday, Sania and Bopanna will go up against Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and David Vega Hernandez of Spain, an explosive combination. DHAMNE BOWS OUT Manas Dhamne, struggling with cramps, conceded his second-round match to 11th seed Yi Zhou of China in the boys’ singles. The 15-year-old rallied to turn the match around and was trailing 5-7, 6-3, 2-5 when he threw in the towel. Dhamne, who forced the pace in the second set, levelled set scores and went toeto-toe in the decider. He then collapsed on the court in the fifth game of the decider (2-2). The rules don’t allow for an injury time-out if a player is struggling with cramps. Dhamne, who was attended to by the trainer, returned to the court and Zhou took the next three games. At 5-2 (15-0) with Zhou serving for the match, the Indian threw in the towel. Dhamne then pulled out of the doubles draw, where he was to play with compatriot Aryan Shah.