Sania, Bethanie enter last four

The Dubai-based Indian pro and her extrovert American playing partner broke Safarova’s serve in the fourth game of the first set, only for Mattek-Sands’ service to be broken immediately thereafter for 3-3. The next three games went with serve for Mattek-Sands and Mirza to lead 5-4, when Pavlyuchenkova was broken to conclude the first set action. This quarter-final clash then looked to be going the way of Pavlyuchenkova and Safarova as a break of Mattek-Sands’ serve in the third game — which was subsequently consolidated — suggested a shift in the momentum at 3-1 ahead.

Sania Mirza on her way to victory

Nonetheless, with Pavlyuchenkova and Safarova’s service games appearing equally as brittle as Mattek-Sands’, the Mirza-Mattek-Sands duo were always going to have opportunities to level things up. They took all of them as well, winning five of the next six games — breaking Safarova twice and Pavlyuchenkova once — to close out the match, with Mirza’s lost service game in the ninth game proving somewhat academic in the final reckoning. Mattek-Sands and Mirza were joined in the semis by the fourth-seeded pairing of Nuria Llagoestera Vives and Jie Zheng – conquerors of Darija Jurak and Katalin Marosi 6-3, 6-4 – and Cara Black and Anastasia Rodionova, who easily overcame wildcard entrants Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur 6-1, 6-3.

Mirza and Mattek-Sands will now play Black and Rodionova in Friday’s semi showdowns, with Llagostera Vives and Zheng meeting the eventual winners of the fourth and final quarter-final between second seeds Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik and German wildcards Julia Goerges and Angelique Kerber.