India at Australian Open: Paes-Hingis pair out

Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis crashed out of the mixed doubles competition of the Australian Open with a straight-set defeat in the quarter-finals, in Melbourne, on Thursday.

Paes and Hingis lost 3-6, 2-6 to the local pair of Sam Groth and Samantha Stosur in a quarterfinal match that lasted 55 minutes.

The Australian duo dominated the match and broke serve of the Indo-Swiss combination in the fifth game to nose ahead before sealing the first set 6-3 with another service break.

In the second set, Paes and Hingis were broken in the fourth game to trail 1-3. The Indo-Swiss pair were 2-5 down when Hingis served only to be broken by the Australians, who sealed the match comfortably.

In the semi-finals, Groth and Stosur will meet the second seeded combo of India's Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig of Croatia.

Meanwhile, Zeel Desai lost to Elena Rybakina of Russia 4-6, 3-6 in the quarter-finals of the junior girls' singles.