Australian Open: Bopanna-Babos enter mixed doubles final (Lead)

Melbourne Jan 26 (IANS) The Indo-Hungarian tennis pair of Rohan Bopanna and Timea Babos on Friday defeated Marcelo Demoliner and Martinez Sanchez in a semi-final match to enter the Australian Open mixed doubles final.

Bopanna-Babos will now face the Candaian-Croatia pair of Gabriela Dabrwoski-Mate Pavic in the mixed doubles final on Saturday.

The fifth seeded duo of Bopanna and Babos fought back after losing the second set to Demoliner from Brazil and Sanchez from Spain to defeat them 7-5 5-7 (10-6) in a three setter which was concluded in an hour and 25 minutes.

Bopanna and his partner Babos clinched the first set 7-5 in 34 minutes. The duo caused some unforced errors during the inital essay but still managed to clinch it.

In the second set Sanchez and Demoliner took hold of the initial three set points. However Bopanna and Babos fought back into the point with some great returns but lost it 5-7 by a narrow margin.

In the tie breaker after trailing 1-2 Bopanna and Babos came back to level at 2-2. Later they took two consecutive points to take a 4-2 lead and managed to close it (10-6) to enter the finals.

--IANS
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