Murray, Ferrer march into last eight
Melbourne: Indian tennis stars Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna earned contrasting victories to sail through to the quarter-finals of their respective categories at the Australian Open here on Monday.
Top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis earned their 33rd victory in a row to enter the last eight of women’s doubles by easily moving past experienced but scratch combination of Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) and Roberta Vinci (Italy) 6-1, 6-3 at the Margaret Court Arena in an hour and 21 minutes.
A little while earlier, Bopanna, partnering Chinese Taipei’s Yung-Jan Chan, beat the Czech-Polish combine of Andrea Hlavackova and Lukasz Kubot in the mixed doubles second round. The third seeds needed an hour and 10 minutes to win the second round 4-6, 6-3, 10-6 on Show Court 3 of Melbourne Park.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray put a traumatic few days over the health of his father-in-law behind him on Monday as he beat Bernard Tomic to reach the Australian Open quarter -finals.
The British world number two ended the remaining home interest in the Grand Slam with a 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (7/4) win over 16th-seeded Tomic to set up a last-eight match with Spanish baseliner David Ferrer.
Meanwhile, Canadian star Milos Raonic, who was also shaken in his previous match by a high school shooting in his home country, impressively ousted the 2014 champion Stan Wawrinka in a tense five-setter.
Raonic, bidding to broaden his game under new coach Carlos Moya, overcame the Swiss world number four 6-4, 6-3, 5 -7, 4-6, 6-3 and will face Frenchman Gael Monfils in the last eight. There were questions how Murray would respond in his first match after his father-in-law Nigel Sears, Ana Ivanovic’s coach, collapsed at the tournament and was taken to hospital on Saturday.
Raonic, the Canadian 13th seed, came out on top of a tense five-setter with Wawrinka after letting slip a two sets lead.
It was Raonic’s first win against the reigning French Open champion in five meetings, and he has not lost a match at tour level since going down to Rafael Nadal in the third round of last year’s Shanghai Masters.
The power server, who beat Wawrinka’s fellow Swiss Roger Federer to win this month’s Brisbane International, was on track for a straight-sets win after four service breaks to lead by two sets.
But Wawrinka lifted his intensity and took the match to a fifth set.
Spanish eighth seed Ferrer ousted America’s John Isner in 6-4, 6-4, 7-5 in two hours, four minutes to set up his crack at Murray in the quarters.
Former world number one Azarenka proved too strong for Czech Barbora Strycova on Rod Laver Arena, storming through 6 -2, 6-4 to set up a last-eight clash with Angelique Kerber, who beat fellow German Annika Beck 6-4, 6-0.
Seventh seed Kerber powered past Beck to reach the quarter-finals for the first time and knows she has a formidable task ahead against a player who has won each of their encounters dating back to 2012.
Konta prevailed in a three-hour, four-minute slugfest 4- 6, 6-4, 8-6 against Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova. (Agencies)