Indians at Australian Open: Sania-Tecau sail into semis

Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau stormed into the semifinals of the mixed doubles event at the Australian Open with straight sets victory over Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Julia Georges, in Melbourne on Thursday.

Sixth seed Sania and Tecau hardly broke a sweat to prevail over the unseeded Aisam-Julia combination 6-3, 6-4 in their quarterfinal clash that lasted just 63 minutes.

The Indo-Romanian duo will play Australian pair of Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden in the semifinals.

The unseeded Australian pair stunned second seeds Katarina Srebotnik of Sloivakia and India's Rohan Bopanna 7-5, 6-3 in another quarterfinal on Wednesday.

Sania and Tecau got three opportunities to break their opponents in the opening set, out of which they converted one, which was enough for the Indo-Romanian pair to pocket the set in 28 minutes.

In the next set, Sania and Tecau broke their opponents in the ninth game to serve out the set in 35 minutes and book a place in the last four stage.

On Tuesday, Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black were halted in their stride by the world No 1 Italian pair of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in the women's doubles quarter-finals at the Australian Open in Mlebourne on Tuesday.

The sixth seeds lost 2-6, 6-3, 4-6.

In veteran Leander Paes, another Indian is in fray in the mixed doubles event.

-Indians at Australian Open: Paes-Stepanek exit after quarter-final loss

Paes and his Slovakian partner Daniela Hantuchova will meet Kristina Mladenovic of France and Daniel Nestor in another quarterfinal tie later in the day.