Cara, Sania in tough quarters

Tennis
Cara Black and Sania Mirza cruised into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open women’s doubles to set up explosive encounter with the defending champions

ZIMBABWEAN tennis ace Cara Black and Sania Mirza cruised into the quarter-finals of the Australian Open women’s doubles in Melbourne yesterday to set up a potentially explosive encounter with the defending champions this morning.

DANIEL NHAKANISO SPORTS REPORTER

Black and Mirza were impressive in their third round match when they knocked out Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard and Russian Vera Dushevina courtesy of a comfortable 6-4, 6-3 win in just one hour 12 minutes.

The sixth seeds, who are aiming to win their first doubles grand slam title since teaming up late last year, will, however, face their sternest test in the tournament so far in the quarter-finals.

Black and Mirza were scheduled to square off again against the defending champions and top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci from Italy this morning.

The Italian pair, who are ranked number one in the world, were equally dominant in their third round encounter as they made light work of Monique Adamczak and Olivia Rogowska from Australia 6-2, 6-2 in just one hour and five minutes.

Errani and Vinci are gunning for their second consecutive women’s doubles title at the Australian Open after emerging victorious last year.

Black and Mirza will be hoping to maintain their good record against Errani and Vinci after coming out on top in their last meeting.

The Indo-Zimbabwean pair beat their highly fancied opponents 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals of the China Open in October last year en route to lifting the coveted title.