Sania-Martina ease into third round

LONDON, July 3: Top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis breezed into the women’s third round with a 6-3 6-1 win over the Japanese pairing of Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato at the Wimbledon championships here today.

The Indo-Swiss were clinical in their approach and wrapped up the second round clash in 52 minutes on Court No. 3.

The fancied duo served well besides converting five of the eight break points they earned in the match.

Sania and Martina’s third round opponents will be Christina McHale and Jelena Ostapenko.

The American-Latvian combine defeated 13th seeds Alla Kudryavtseva and Vania King 6-1 6-4 in their second round match.

Earlier today, the 10th seeded Finnish-Australian pair of John Peers and Henri Kontinen needed only 62 minutes to dispatch India’s Leander Paes and his Polish  partner Marcin Matkowski 6-3 6-2 in the second round.

Paes and Matkowski had three break chances in the opening set but converted none. They lost their serve thrice in the match.

Now Peers and Kontinen will take on sixth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Romania’s Florin Mergea.

Paes is, though, defending his mixed doubles title with Hingis. They have been seeded 16th and got a first round bye.

Sania and Bopanna have also got first round byes with their respective partners. Sania has paired with Ivan Dodig while Bopanna is playing with Anastasia Rodionova. (PTI)