The Indo-Swiss tennis combine of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis were tested but eventually made their way through to enter the women's doubles semifinals of the $5.7 million China Open here on Thursday.
The top seeds took an hour and 20 minutes to beat the German-Czech pairing of Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova 7-6(5), 6-4 at the Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Center, which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games.
The first set was an extremely close contest as both pairs earned five breakpoint chances and converted twice. This led to the tie-breaker where Sania and Martina proved a tad better to clinch it 7-5.
Julia and Karolina fought well again in the second set to break the top seeds but Sania and Martina came back strong to break the European combine twice and take home the set and match.
Overall, the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions won 73 of the 131 points played in the match.
Sania has reached the final of this event in the last three editions, winning the 2013 title with Zimbabwean Cara Black.
