The mixed doubles semifinal at the US Open proved bitter-sweet for India. With Martina Hingis, India’s Leander Paes was on one side of the court and another Indian Rohan Bopanna, on the opposite side with his Taiwanese partner Yung-Jan Chan. Bopanna got unlucky for the second time on Wednesday as he lost. Earlier in the day, Bopanna had also lost his men’s doubles quarterfinal match with Romanian Florin Mergea. The sixth-seeded Indo-Romanian duo went down in straight sets against unseeded pair of Britain’s Dominic Inglot and Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt. In the mixed doubles, Bopanna and Yung-Jan Chan were overwhelmed by Paes and Hingis, who reached their second consecutive Grand Slam Final after Wimbledon. The Swiss Miss also combined with India’s Sania Mirza to win another semifinal. The women’s doubles top seeds defeated 11th seeded Italians Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta and inched one step closer to winning their second Grand Slam title together. Hingis was not the only Swiss to steal the limelight. She had an illustrious company of her compatriots Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka, both of whom advanced to the men’s singles semifinal on Wednesday night. While Federer was classy against the talented Frenchman Richard Gasquet, Wawrinka played a scintillating quarterfinal against South Africa’s Kevin Anderson to register a straight sets victory, bageling the big-serving South African in the third set. With Marin Cilic and Novak Djokovic having already entered the Final Four, it is the first time since 1995 that all semifinalist have won at least a one major title in their tennis careers.
In a mixed doubles semifinal on Wednesday, Leander Paes/Martina Hingis took on second seeds Rohan Bopanna/Yung-Jan Chan of Taiwan. In an entertaining match, Paes/Hingis played attractively and dominantly to take the first set with ease. But Bopanna/Yung-Jan tried hard with a rejuvenated display in the second set. However, that proved inadequate against the scheming Hingis, who once again played a key role in the match as the Indo-Swiss pair emerged 6-2, 7-5 winners to enter their third mixed doubles Grand Slam final this year. Having already won the Australian Open and the Wimbledon, Paes/Hingis should be considered favorites, when they play in the final against USA’s Bethanie Mattek-Sands/Sam Querrey.
Earlier in the day, Martina Hingis anchored another Indian Sania Mirza in the women’s doubles semifinal against no. 11 seeded Italians Sara Errani/Flavia Pennetta. Playing near flawless tennis, Hingis/Sania took just 77 minutes to brush aside the Italians 6-4, 6-1. For the title game the Swiss-Indo pair will face the winners of the second semi-final between fourth seeds Australian Casey Dellacqua/Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova and Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld/USA’ Coco Vandeweghe. The top seed Indo-Swiss women’s doubles team has been in brilliant form in the US Open and they haven’t dropped a set yet. They are obviously eying for their second successive Grand Slam crown after winning the Wimbledon title two months ago. For the other Indian Rohan Bopanna, Wednesday proved to be a bad day. He lost both the men’s doubles and mixed doubles. Before losing to Paes/Hingis with his Taiwanese partner, Bopanna and his Romanian men’s doubles partner Florin Mergea lost 6-7, 3-6 against unseeded Dominic Inglot of Great Britain and Sweden’s Robert Lindstedt.
Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka completed the men’s singles line-up on Wednesday with resounding victories against their opponents. Federer showed impeccable efficiency and timing to beat Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-3, 6-1 in an hour and 27 minutes. The no.2 seeded Swiss never faced a break point, produced 50 winners to Gasquet’s 8 and made the highly talented Frenchman look an ordinary player in front of the jam-packed crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The other Swiss and 5th seed Stan Wawrinka demolished Andy Murray’s conqueror Kevin Anderson of South Africa in another quarterfinal. Wawrinka used Federer’s recently developed trick of charging to the service line for a second-serve return in eliminating 15th-seeded Anderson 6-4, 6-4, 6-0. The Swiss had no issue against Anderson’s service as he won 5 out of 8 break opportunities that came his way and made his dominance complete by winning 24 out of 29. For a place in the final, Wawrinka and Federer will face each other on Friday.