Indian tennis star Mahesh Bhupati stolen two consecutive days at the Australian Open by storming into the mixed doubles final pairing with Sania Mirza on Friday, and a day earlier playing with Mark Knowles of the Bahamas the Bangalorean had entered the men’s doubles final.
On Friday, Bhupati-Sania beat the Czech duo Iveta Benesova and Lukas Dlouhy in straight sets 6-4, 6-1 and made it to the final of Australian Open for the second successive year where they will take on the unseeded French-Israeli pair of Nathalie Dechy and Andy Ram. The unseeded pair defeated seventh seeded Spaniards Anabel Medina Garrigues and Tommy Robredo 7-6 (9/7) 6-4.
Shrugging off the sluggish start trailing in the opening set 1-3, Sania and Bhupati bounced back soon to steal the match in just 54 minutes. The Hyderabadi gal showed her brilliance both at the net and from the baseline playing some outstanding shots. Both Sania and Bhupati broke Dlouhy’s serve four times, twice in each set that helped them prevailing over their opponents.
A win in the final would be Bhupathi’s seventh mixed doubles Grand Slam title and 11th overall, while for Sania it would be the maiden one.
Bhupati had won the last mixed doubles Grand Slam at the Australian Open in 2006 pairing with Swiss Martina Hingis.
The third seeded Bhupati and Knowles will take on the Bryan twins- Mark and Bob- in the men’s doubles final on Saturday. The Californians duo defeated Paes and Lukas Dlouhy 6-3, 6-3 in another semi-final.
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