Sania Mirza and Liezel Huber struggled hard to oust Darija Jurak and Heather Watson and crash into the quarterfinals of the Eastbourne WTA Aegon International on Wednesday.
The second seeded Indo-American duo registered a 7-6 (4) 7-6 (3) win over unseeded Czech-British pair in one hour and 36 minutes in the first round of the tournament, leading to Wimbledon. Further, Sania and Huber will clash with Romania's Monica Niculescu and Czech Republic's Klara Zakopalova to secure a place in the semifinals.
Fortunately, an early break placed Sania and her partner in a comfortable position and shortly they started serving the set during the ninth game. Unluckily the duo could not deliver the punch as they were down by 0-40 and their opponents changed their second chance to make it 4-5 and settled the score in the subsequent game with a hold. Later the issues were extended to a tie-breaker during which Sania and Huber captured the first available opportunity to haul a one-set lead.
On the other hand, Jurak and Watson continued to fight the game. The duo broke Huber's serve during the second game to open up a 2-0 lead in the second set. Sania and Huber left behind their rivals but broke back soon and the set returned to the even terms again. They encountered a break chance at deuce point during the seventh game but Jurak and Watson survived.
Luckily, the next opportunity for Sania and Huber arrived in the 11th game and they comfortably broke the contenders. Then Sania served for the match but hesitated as she started with a double fault. The Indian was broken soon, forcing a tie-breaker. Sania and Huber proved to be a better team again in the tie-breaker as they clinched the issue.
