Rio de Janeiro: Giving yet another clinical performance, Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna overwhelmed Britain's Andy Murray and Heather Watson 6-4, 6-4 to storm into the semi-final of mixed-doubles event of the Olympic Tennis competition.
There was no doubt about the superiority of the 4th-seeded Indian pair as they virtually reduced the quarter-final contest into a side affair that lasted only 67 minutes.
The Indians are now in a medal zone and one more victory will ensure India the right to battle it out for the gold medal.
Murray came into the match looking very tired having fought a grim two hour battle in his singles quarter-final.
The world No. 2, winner of three Grand Slams and the defending Olympic champion, seemed to be saving his energy for the singles. His tentative display made the job easier for the Indians.
Watson was also off colour and she did not display the energy and enthusiasm expected from the current Wimbledon mixed-doubles champion. She had problems with her serve and ground strokes in the opening set.
The Indians opened with a double fault and Sania's unforced errors gave the rivals their first break. However, the British pair could not hold on to the advantage as Watson dropped serve at love.
It was Watson who again had problems with her serve and was down 0-40, as the Indians broke her. Murray then failed to put across a strong forehand return from Sania, and Indians led 4-3.
Sania served well as India led 5-3 and then Bopanna served out the first set without fuss, hitting two aces.
Murray and Watson played better as a team in the second set, but the Indians broke Murray in the fifth for a 3-2 lead.
Bopanna sealed the set and match on the third match point with an overhead smash.
After the match, Bopanna said he was satisfied the way match went. "We definitely played better than yesterday. The conditions also helped us. Especially for me on the serve, it was a lot better. Sania served very well yesterday and today and we returned extremely well, putting a lot of pressure on their serves. That made a difference today for sure.”
He however added that he was still working on his serve every single day even though it is his strength.
"I work on it every single day. I trust my serve so much. (It) doesn’t matter if I serve two double faults, I know I can go for my second serves."
The tall Indian made light of the seedings saying, "The seedings don’t matter, with two sets and a deciding tie break any body has a chance. I don’t think we are looking at the fact that we are the only seeds. We are just going there, we know we have to keep focusing and winning our matches.”
Sania Mirza was of the view that she and Bopanna played much better than their first fixture.
"We feel that we played better than yesterday, which is what we said we needed to and I am glad we were able to deliver. The conditions were a lot easier to play today, it wasn’t so windy.
“My biggest strength is the return and we put a lot of pressure with that and hence we break the girl a lot and we also broke Andy. That’s the way me and Mahesh (Bhupathi) used to play and that’s the way me and Rohan play. We are really happy the way we played but of course there’s room for improvement. It isn’t just about tennis, but also nerves and many things that come into play in the semifinal. So we are going to hope to bring our A-game again and hopefully be better than even today,” Sania said.
About the pressure and expectations, Sania said, “Actually, pressure is something that’s always there no matter where we play. I take pride in the fact that I always come through under pressure.
“We would have preferred the other draw, but we were handed the tougher draw, so at the end of the day we came through and we almost played our best, though we can play better.”