Portugal Open: Sania-Cara cruise into semis, Somdev crashes out

Sania Mirza alongwith doubles partner Cara Black marched into the semifinals of the Portugal Open while India’s Somdev Devvarman went down against top seed Tomas Berdych in the men’s singles second round. Continuing their good form, the top seeded pair of Sania Mirza and Cara Black chalked out a 6-3 6-4 win over Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Shuai Zhang. [caption id=“attachment_1505331” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File picture of Sania Mirza and Cara Black. Getty Images[/caption] The Indo-Zimbabwean team defeated the Spanish-Chinese pair in one hour and nine minutes at the USD 250,000 clay court event. They will fight it out against third seeded American pair of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond for a place in the finals. Sania has partnered both Huber and Raymond in the past. In the men’s singles, Devvarman could not do much to match Berdych’s class, losing 3-6 2-6 in the round of 16. The 102-ranked Indian had beaten 64th-ranked Australian, Matthew Ebden, in the opening round on Tuesday. It was Somdev’s first win after five straight first-round defeats in the last three months. PTI