Sania Mirza and Nadiia Kichenok in semifinals of Hobart

Sania Mirza sustained her good start on her return to the professional circuit, and reached the doubles semifinals with Nadiia Kichenok of Ukraine, with a 6-2, 4-6, 10-4 victory over Vania King and Christina Mchale of the US, in the $275,000 WTA women’s tennis tournament in Hobart, Australia, on Thursday.

In the semifinals, the fifth seeded Sania and Nadiia will play Marie Bouzkova of Czech Repubic and Tamara Zidansek of Slovenia.

Meanwhile, the Indian challenge in the $610,010 ATP event in Auckland, ended in the doubles quarterfinals. Divij Sharan and Artem Sitak, who had beaten the top seeds in the pre-quarterfinals, went down 9-11 in the super tie-break to the Belgians Sander Gille and Joran Vliegen.

Rohan Bopanna, seeded third in partnership with Henri Kontinen, was beaten 6-3, 6-4 by the British-Japanese combination of Luke Bambridge and Ben Mclachlan.

Sriram Balaji and Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan made the doubles semifinals of the Challenger in Bangkok, and will play Sonchat Ratiwatana and Christopher Rungkat.

In the ITF women’s event in Monastir, Tunisia, Zeel Desai sailed into the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over sixth seed Alice Tubello of France.

The results:

$610,010 ATP, Auckland, New Zealand
Doubles (quarterfinals): Sander Gille & Joran Vliegen (BEL) bt Artem Sitak (NZL) & Divij Sharan 5-7, 7-6(3), [11-9]; Luke Bambridge (GBR) & Ben Mclachlan (JPN) bt Henri Kontinen (FIN) & Rohan Bopanna 6-3, 6-4.

$275,000 WTA, Hobart, Australia
Doubles (quarterfinals): Nadiia Kichenok (UKR) & Sania Mirza bt Vania King & Christina Mchale (US) 6-2, 4-6, [10-4].

$54,160 Challenger, Bangkok, Thailand
Doubles (quarterfinals): Sriram Balaji & Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan bt JC Aragone (US) & Luis David Martinez (VEN) 7-6(3), 6-1.

$15,000 ITF women, Monastir, Tunisia
Singles (pre-quarterfinals): Zeel Desai bt Alice Tubello (FRA) 6-2, 6-0.

(Courtsy: The Hindu)