Mutua Madrid Open: Sania – Bethanie progress to round of 16

File Photo: Bethanie Mattek-Sands (L) of the United States, pictured here during the 2013 Australian Open, talks tactics with Sania Mirza of India. (Getty Images)

Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands overcame stiff resistance from Daniela Hantuchova and Anabel Medina-Garrigues to reach the pre-quarters of the Mutua Madrid Open, a WTA Premier event inside La Caja Mágica. The fifth seeded Indo-American duo overcame their unseeded opponents 7-6 (3), 4-6, 10-4 after an hour and 46 minutes of an erratic yet thrilling battle in Madrid.

Hantuchova and Medina-Garrigues courted trouble early in the match, after squandering both break points in the third game. The Slovak-Spanish combination fell to 0-40 in the sixth game, but staved danger with a determined effort to keep level at 3-3.

As if rattled by the spirit of their opponents, the Indo-American duo surrendered the first break of the match at love in the seventh game. The mishap set off a numbing sequence of six breaks of serve including a vital break to love by Mirza and Mattek-Sands with their opponents serving for the first set at 6-5.

Hantuchova and Medina-Garrigues blinked first in the tie-break, but Sania and Bethanie returned the compliment soon to leave the breaker evenly poised at 3-2 on the serve. However, the Slovakian and Spaniard gifted two mini-breaks at vital junctures to surrender the first set.

Once again, it was Sania and Bethanie that lost their serve in the second set to fall behind 1-3. The next two games also saw a further exchange of breaks as Hantuchova and Medina-Garrigues fought hard to retain a 4-2 advantage. But the Slovakian and Spaniard failed to serve out the set at 5-3, when they succumbed to the break at love.

But Sania and Bethanie accounted for a fifth break in the second set, when Hantuchova and Medina-Garrigues took their first set point at 30:40 to push the match into a decisive match tie-break. The unseeded pair of Hantuchova and Medina-Garrigues played a loose breaker, conceding four service points to succumb to a narrow defeat.

The Indo-American pair saved only four off ten chances to break serve while their opponents saved seven off twelve points. But then Sania and Bethanie combined well in the match tie-break to run away with a well earned win. Another victory could pit Sania and Bethanie against the 3^rd seeded Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the quarters of this event that offers €203,000 to the winners of the women’s doubles event.