Sania-Strycova out of doubles

The French pair of Garcia and Mladenovic won 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 in only 69 minutes to end the Indian challenge at the Flushing Meadows. 

The other Indian starts in the fray, Rohan Bopanna, Leander Paes and Saketh Myneni have all lost their respective matches in the earlier rounds. 

Caroline and Kristina were down 1-4 in the first set as Sania-Barbora got an early break to jump to a 3-1 lead at the Grandstand Court here on Tuesday. 

Sania, world’s top-ranked doubles player, then held her serve comfortably to consolidate the lead 4-1. Up 5-2, the Indo-Czech pair received two break points to close out the first set but couldn’t produce the killer blow and quickly paid the prize.

Sania’s serve came under severe threat, facing three break points, and was broken in the first instance itself. Garcia then held her serve easily to be on level terms at 5-5. With the scores locked at 6-6, the set needed a tiebreaker to break the deadlock. The French pair raced to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreaker and was not under much trouble as they clinched it 7-3. 

The domination of the top seeds progressed into the second set, getting an early lead by breaking Strycova’s serve to go 2-0 up. Sania and Barbora were subjected to extreme pressure as they were unable to find a way to snap the flow of the proceedings, trailing 0-3. 

A light drizzle held up the match for a while and the players had to retrieve to the locker room to wait. The delay could have broken the momentum of the top seeds but they hardly looked hassled and took it smartly in their stride breaking their opponents again after the resumption of play to enjoy a commanding 4-0 lead. 

From there on it was just a matter of time before the top seeds claimed victory, which they achieved without breaking a sweat. Sania-Barbora defeated Nicole Gibbs and Nao Hibino 6-4, 7-5 to reach the quarter-finals on Monday.