Sania-Martina reach Guangzhou Open semis

Guangzhou: Indo-Swiss tennis combine of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis comfortably entered the women's doubles semi-finals with a straight sets victory at the $250,000 Guangzhou Open here on Thursday.

The top seeds needed just an hour and five minutes to beat unseeded German-Romanian pairing of Anna-Lena Friedsam and Monica Niculescu 6-2, 6-3 in the quarter-finals, played on the centre court of the Guangzhou International Tennis Center.

The reigning US Open champions, Sania and Martina will next take on Israeli-Swedish combination of Julia Glushko and Rebecca Peterson on Friday.

In the quarter-finals, it was an easy outing for the current Wimbledon champions who broke Anna-Lena and Monica thrice in the first set, once more than the European pair, to easily take the first set.

The German-Romanian pair came back stronger in the second set but Sania and Martina needed only a break of serve to win the second set and the match.