Sania-Martina in semis; Paes, Bopanna out of Cincinnati Masters

Cincinnati, Aug 22: Top seeded women's doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis advanced but the other Indians participating in the Cincinnati Masters didn't enjoy such luck as Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna were knocked out from the men's doubles event in the quarter-finals.

The Indo-Swiss pair of Sania and Martina brushed aside the challenge of American wildcards Christina Mchale and CoCo Vandeweghe 6-4, 6-1 to reach the semi-finals here on Friday.

They set up a showdown with Chinese Taipei pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan in the last four stage of the hard court tournament.

In the men's doubles section, Paes and Swiss star Stanislas Wawrinka went down fighting 6-3, 2-6, 12-14 against Spain's Feliciano Lopez and Belarus' Max Mirnyi in a quarter-final contest.

In another quarter-final, fifth seeded Indo-Romanian pair of Bopanna and Florin Mergea lost another keenly fought contest 1-6, 6-1, 12-14 to second seeded Croat-Brazil Ivan Dodig and Marcelo Melo.