Sania-Jie fail in bid to make US Open final

New York: On a day when India’s Leander Paes and his Czech partner Radek Stepanek entered their second successive men’s doubles final at the US tennis Open, Sania Mirza and China’s Jie Zheng were beaten in the semis of the women’s doubles. Paes and Stepanek avenged their last year’s defeat in the title clash by American twins Mike and Bob Bryan, rallying from a set down to win 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, here at Flushing Meadows. [caption id=“attachment_1089641” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Sania Mirza. AFP[/caption] Sania and Jie just could not get going against Australians Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua and lost 2-6, 2-6. Tenth seeds Sania and Jie were listless in an error-prone semifinal Thursday and they could not consolidate an early break in the second set after losing the first tamely. The eighth seeded Australians, who played better tennis, will Saturday play the winners of the other semi-final between the unseeded Williams sisters Serena and Venus and fifth-seeded Czech pair Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka. The Williams easily beat Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci 6-3, 6-1, in the quarterfinals Thursday. IANS