Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Mate Pavic Friday progressed through to the second round of the Wimbledon 2022 mixed doubles event.
The sixth-seeded pair beat Georgia’s Natela Dzalamidze and Spain’s David Vega Hernandez 6-4, 3-6, 6(10)-6(3) in one hour and 58 minutes.
The Indo-Croatian pair lost their serve in the first set to go 1-3 down but recovered to win the next four games in a row before closing out the set 6-4.
In a tightly-fought second set, Mirza-Pavic were broken in the eighth game by Dzalamidze-Hernandez who served out the set.
The third set followed a similar pattern until the ninth game with Mirza-Pavic leading 5-4. Serving to stay in the match, Dzalamidze-Hernandez saved four match points in a mammoth game before forcing a tiebreak.
The Indo-Croat pair used their experience to take control of the tiebreak as they went on to book their place in the second round.
Mirza-Pavic will face the winner of the match between Latisha Chan-Ivan Dodig and Andreas Mies-Erin Routliffe in the second round.
Mirza, who had announced that 2022 would be her last year on tour, had lost in the first round of the women’s doubles with her Czech partner Lucie Hradecká.