Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova beat Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara 6-7 (3), 7-5, 10-8 in the first round of the women's doubles event at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament here on Tuesday.
The Indo-Czech advanced to the quarter-finals after a hard-fought contest against their Japanese opponents at Indoor Court 3.
The match was a see-saw affair and stretched for 2 hours and two minutes.
The first set was a close contest which the Indo-Czech pair surrendered in 48 minutes in a tie-breaker.
But from there on Sania-Barbora managed to hold a slight edge on the contest and edged the second set 7-5 in 56 minutes and the deciding thirs set tie-breaker by a slender margin in 18 minutes.
They will next face China's Yifan Xu and Japanese Miyu Kato in the quarters.
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Sania and Barbora were beaten in the quarter-finals of the US Open recently.
--IANS
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