Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova were made to sweat but their superior experience and class propelled them to the quarter-final of the US Open women's singles, beating Nicole Gibbs and Nao Hibino 6-4 7-5 on Monday.
Mirza and Strycova got an early break in the first set, comfortably racing to a 2-0 lead in the game. Gibbs and Hibino were grappling with plenty with coordination lapses. There were several points that that the American-Japanese pair squandered with both of them chasing after the ball.
At 4-1, the set was well within Mirza and Strycova's grasp but their opponents, who were rusty and slow to get off the blocks, found some momentum in their game. There was a hint of complacency too as Mirza, quite uncharacteristically, made a couple of unforced errors. It looked a different game at 5-4 but the Indo-Czech duo smarted from their earlier lapses to take the set.
Mirza was imperious in the second set. Gibbs and Hibino were matching the seventh seeded players blow for blow. Mirza's ferocious forehand winners were no match for the unseeded pair. Even at the net, the Indian managed to eke out points through some crushing volleys.
Strycova quietly accumulated points – she was terrific in the long rallies and neat with her returns at the net. Yet again, careless unforced errors, combined with Gibbs and Hibino complementing each other well, saw Mirza and Strycova fall behind in a set for the the first time in the game.
Being 3-5 down in the second set only galvanised Mirza and Strycova, who powered away to bag the last four points and book their place in the quarter-final, where they face Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic.