Coco Vandeweghe’s fairy-tale continues

The big-hitting 25-year-old world number 35 blasted her way past seventh seed Garbine Muguruza 6-4 6-0 at the Australian Open on Tuesday to reach the semi-finals of a Grand Slam for the first time. French Open champion Muguruza was left simply stunned. “I think she played unbelievable. Three times we played in the past, she didn’t show this level,” the Spaniard said. “I have zero regrets about my performance. I think when you play with someone that has the power to disturb like this, to hit these kind of shots, and has a good day, I mean, it’s difficult honestly.” Next up for Vandeweghe in the semi-finals is Venus Williams, 11 years her senior and seven-times a grand slam champion.

Venus Williams continued her astonishing late-career revival by felling Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 7-6(3) to reach her first Australian Open semi-final in 14 years and become the oldest woman to reach the last four at Melbourne Park in the professional era.

Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna set up a mixed doubles quarterfinal clash against each other at the Australian Open after winning their respective matches, here on Tuesday. Bopanna and his Canadian partner Gabriela Dabrowski knocked out the fifth-seeded team of Yung-Jan Chan and Lukasz Kubot 6-4 5-7 10-3 in their second round match. 

Later, Sania and her partner Croatian Ivan Dodig, seeded second, overcame stiff resistance from Saisai Zheng and Alexander Peya to triumph 2-6 6-3 10-6. Austrian Peya served a double fault at 5-5 in the decisive Super Tie-Breaker but after that the second seeds reeled off five straight points to seal the issue. One Indian is now certain to feature in the semifinals and if Leander Paes manages to win his quarterfinal with partner Martina Hingis, the semifinal will again feature two Indians. Paes and Hingis are up against local favourites Samantha Stosur and Sam Groth.