US Open 2017: Sania Mirza and Peng Shuai progress to doubles semifinals

New Delhi: Sania Mirza kept Indian hope alive at the ongoing US Open 2017 as the Indo-Chinese pair of Mirza and partner Peng Shuai continued with their ravishing reun in the Flushing Meadows with a 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory over Hungarian-Czech pair of Tímea Babos and Andrea Hlaváčková in the quarterfinal round of the tournament, on Thursday.

The first set began in favour if Sania and Peng as they took an impressive 3-2 lead. Captivating on the errors put forth by Babos and Hlaváčková, they took their lead to 4-2 and then to 5-3. But the Hungarian-Czech duo bounced back to take the set to a tie-breaker, where the fourth-seeded pair gained control to grab the winner 7-6 (7-5) after an hours battle. The second set was more of one-sided as the duo finished of matters to book their tickets for the semi-final round.

Sania Mirza, who had had a rather splendid run last year that took her to all-time high World No. 1 in doubles circuit, failed to carry on the momentum this year. This will, in fact, be her best Grand Slam performance in 2017, with in the earlier three she had failed to crawl past the third round of the competition. And now with Peng by her side she is two step away from her second US Open glory. She had clinched the title alongside Martina Hingis back in 2015.

Saina and Shuai will face the winner of the match between second seed Hingis and Hao-Ching Chan, and Yung Han-Chan and Shuai Zhang.