LONDON: Leander Paes and Sania Mirza made a winning start to their bid for a Olympic Games mixed doubles medal as the Indian duo defeated Serbia’s Nenad Zimonjic and Ana Ivanovic 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday.
With all the Indian men’s and women’s doubles teams eliminated from the Games, Paes and Mirza are their country’s last hope of a medal and they remain in the hunt after a comfortable first round win on Court 14 at Wimbledon.
Next up for Paes and Mirza is a quarterfinal clash against Belarusian top seeds Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi.
The Indian pair are playing together in controversial circumstances after Paes demanded an assurance that only he would be paired with Mirza, rather than Mahesh Bhupathi or Rohan Bopanna, following the row over Bhupathi’s refusal to play with Paes in the men’s doubles.
Mirza previously admitted she was uncomfortable at being used as “bait” to keep Paes happy after winning two Grand Slam titles with Bhupathi.
Indian medal hopes had receded further when Leander Paes and his unheralded partner Vishnu Vardhan fought valiantly before bowing out of the men’s doubles event late Wednesday.
A day after the more fancied pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Rohan Bopanna crashed out in the second round, Leander and Vishnu gave a better account of themselves before the strong duo of Jo Wilfred Tsonga and Michael Llodra, the wild card recipients from France, pulled off a gruelling 7-6 (3) 4-6 6-4 victory in a match which lasted two hours and seven minutes.
Roger Federer moved into the Olympic semi-finals on Thursday as the Wimbledon champion cut giant American John Isner down to size with a 6-4 7-6 (7-5) victory on Centre Court.
Federer had to be at his most patient in the face of a barrage of big serves from the 6ft 9in Isner, but the world number one was finally able to produce just enough magic to move into the last four of the Olympics for the first time since the 2000 Games in Sydney.
The 30-year-old, bidding to win his first singles gold medal, will play Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro for a place in the final.
Serbia’s Novak Djokovic set up an Olympic semifinal showdown with Andy Murray after beating French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-1, 7-5 on Thursday.
Djokovic is bidding to win his first Olympic gold medal after taking home a bronze from the 2008 Games in Beijing and he remains firmly in the hunt after seeing off the big-serving Tsonga on Wimbledon’s Centre Court.
Following a hard-fought win over Lleyton Hewitt in the previous round, this was Djokovic at his dominant best and the world number two’s first grasscourt clash with the in-form Murray promises to be a titanic battle.
The Serb has every reason to believe he can win after surviving an epic five-setter against Murray in the Australian Open semifinals earlier this year to secure his eighth win in 13 meetings with the world number four.
Serena Williams remains on course for her first Olympic singles gold medal after crushing Danish eighth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-0 6-3 in the quarter-finals on Thursday. Serena, a two-time doubles gold medallist with sister Venus, was at her imperious best on Wimbledon’s Court One and the American fourth seed, who faces a semi-final clash with world number one Victoria Azarenka, is now just two victories away from winning gold. Williams claimed her magnificent 6-1 6-0 demolition of Vera Zvonareva in the previous round of the Games topped any of her performances en route to her fifth Wimbledon title last month.
Ominously for her rivals, the 30-year-old was just as dominant against former world number one Wozniacki. “I wasn’t in a rush!” Serena said. “I know I can rally up to a hundred balls if necessary and when you are playing Caroline you have to be ready to do that.
“She is so consistent, she was number one (in the world) for a reason. “That was not a quick first set to win 6-0; it was 32 minutes, it’s not as if it was 15 minutes. She was playing really tough.” (Agencies)