MELBOURNE: Indian tennis ace Leander Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis crashed out of the mixed doubles competition of the Australian Open with a straight-set defeat in the quarterfinals here today. Paes and Hingis lost 3-6 2-6 to the local pair of Sam Groth and Samantha Stosur in a quarterfinal match that lasted 55 minutes.
The Australian duo dominated the match and broke serve of the Indo-Swiss combination in the fifth game to nose ahead before sealing the first set 6-3 with another service break. In the second set, Paes and Hingis were broken in the fourth game to trail 1-3.
The Indo-Swiss pair were 2-5 down when Hingis served only to be broken by the Australians, who sealed the match comfortably. In the semifinals, Groth and Stosur will meet the second-seeded combo of India's Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig of Croatia. Meanwhile, Zeel Desai lost to Elena Rybakina of Russia 4-6 3-6 in the quarterfinals of the junior girls' singles.