Sania-Mattek in semis of East West Bank Classic

Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek overcame a fighting Russian pair of Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva to book a semifinal berth in the tournament.

Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek overcame a fighting Russian pair of Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva to book a semifinal berth in the $600,000 WTA East West Bank Classic tournament here.

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The Indo-American pair, seeded second, pipped the Russian duo 6-3 1-6 10 -8 in one hour and 14 minutes in the quarterfinals of the Tier II hard court event last night.

Sania-Mattek did not drop their serve even once in the first set and converted two of the four breakpoints to take the lead.

However, they surprisingly lost the momentum and allowed Vesnina-Zvonareva combination to overpower them in the next.

The Indo-American dropped their serve thrice in the second set and squandered the only breakpoint also.

However, they got their elements together in the tie-breaker to prevail over the Russians and move to the last four stage, where they will face winner of the match between Eva Hrdinova/Vladimira Uhlirova and Ayumi Morita/Ai Sugiyama.