Mirza/Bhupathi fall in the mixed-doubles semis against Mattek-Sands/Tecau – Australian Open 2012
First of the mixed-doubles semi-final clash at the Australian Open saw the sixth seeded hot favourite Indian duo of Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi losing to the eighth seed American-Romanian combination of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Horia Tecau on Friday
afternoon. The contest lasted for merely 68 minutes, with the Mattek-Sands and Tecau winning convincingly in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3, to secure a berth in the final of the Grand Slam Down Under.
It was a fairly one-sided contest, with the American-Romanian tandem dominating for most of the time. Mirza and Bhupathi have been absolutely stunning throughout their Grand Slam campaign and reached the semi-final round with a number of emphatic victories
over accomplished players. The Indians failed to put up a similar sort of performance with their racquets on Friday and proved to be an easy target for the eighth seed couple.
Mattek-Sands and Tecau delivered merely 56 per cent of their first serve on target but secured 17 out of 29 points on it to get the better of their superior ranked opponents. They converted four out of seven break opportunities en route to victory, while
Mirza and Bhupathi could register merely one break point in the entire matchup to finish on the losing side in the end. They frittered away four other crucial break chances and coughed 13 unforced errors to assist their opponents to victory.
An aggressive start was witnessed in the opening set, with an early exchange of serve breaks from both sides. Mirza and Bhupathi suffered another crushing serve break from their opponents to drop the first set at 3-6. They kept struggling in the following
set as well and kept spilling errors to award easy points to Mattek-Sands and Tecau. The Indians left wide cracks in their positioning in the contest, allowing their opponents to nail cracking winners through them.
A serve break from Mattek-Sands and Tecau in the seventh game, followed by a hold of serve in the next game, left Mirza and Bhupathi serving to stay in the match at 3-5. The eighth seeded duo broke the Indian serve to conclude victory at 6-3, marching into
the final of the Australian Open mixed-doubles.
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