Second seeds Sania Mirza and her Croatian partner Ivan Dodig reached the final of the mixed doubles at the Australian Open after beating the Australian pair of Sam Groth and Samantha Stosur 6-4, 2-6, [10-5] on Friday.
This was the third consecutive match where Mirza/Dodig were stretched to the 10-point super tiebreaker in the third set. They will now meet Abigail Spears (US) and Juan Sebastian Cabal (Colombia) in the final.
Groth started the match with three consecutive double faults in the first game. Halfway through the first set, Dodig was broken in the sixth game and Mirza/Dodig went 2-4 down. But both Stosur and Groth were broken soon after as Mirza/Dodig made it 5-4. The Aussie pair committed 16 unforced errors -- compared with five from Mirza/Dodig -- as they lost a set for the first time at this year's Australian Open. Groth then took a medical timeout as he received treatment on his neck.
Groth and Stosur served better in the second set, winning 91% of their first serve points to clinch the set in 31 minutes.
Mirza/Dodig raised their game in the super tiebreaker that followed. Groth hit yet another double fault at 3-4 -- the 10th by the Australian pair in the match -- and Mirza/ Dodig went on to win five consecutive points to lead 8-3. That took the game away from the Australians and Mirza/Dodig won the match in an hour and 19 minutes.