Australian Open: After doubles high, Sania Mirza loses mixed-doubles semi-finals

New Delhi: Indian ace Sania Mirza on Friday missed out a golden opportunity to complete an Australian Open double after losing the mixed doubles semi-final with her partner Ivan Dodig of Croatia at Melbourne.

Hours after winning women's doubles crown with Swiss legend Martina Hingis, Mirza and Ivan Dodig took on Elena Vesnina of Russia and Bruno Soares of Brazil at the Hisense Area.

But, the top-seeded Indo-Croatian pair suffered a straight sets defeat with the fifth seeds winning 7-5, 7-6(4) in an one hour 32 minutes. Mirza and Dodig started by breaking their opponents, but failed to wrest the first set losing the eighth and 12th games on their serves.

The second set was forced to a tie-breaker after both sides survived two service breaks each. In the tie-breaker, Vesnina and Soares won 7-4 to enter the final, where they will play American Coco Vandeweghe and Romanian Horia Tecau.

Sania had previously won the US Open title with Soares in 2014.

Earlier today, the 29-year-old Indian captured third successive doubles title with Hingis. They defeated the all-Czech pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka 7-6(1), 6-3 at Rod Laver Arena.