AGENCIES
LONDON
The top-seeded pair of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza lost 2-6, 4-6 to the fifth-seeded pair of Hungary's Timea Babos and Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova in 68 minutes in the quarter-finals at Wimbledon.
Babos and Shvedova were off to a good start as they broke Hingis' serve in the third game. Hingis' troubles continued as she was broken again in the seventh game of the first set. Shvedova then held serve to close out the first set 6-2 in 27 minutes. Mirza was then broken in the first game of the second set after committing a double fault. Her problems persisted as she was broken again in the fifth game. However, they fought back to break Shvedova's serve in the eighth game of the second set but Babos closed out the match by holding her serve to love in the tenth game.
Mirza and Hingis converted only one of the six breaks they received whereas Babos and Mladenovic converted all the four break points. Hingis and Mirza, who had not dropped a single set in the tournament so far, struggled to hold serve throughout the match.
Mirza and Hingis had emerged victorious last year in the finals. They also won the Australian Open this year. Babos and Shvedova will take on the tenth-seeded American duo of Abigail Spears and Raquel Atawo in the semifinals. Spears and Atawo had made the semifinals last year as well where they had lost 1-6, 2-6 to Mirza and Hingis.
While the top-seeded Mirza lost in the second round of the mixed doubles with Ivan Dodig, Hingis reached the second round with India's Leander Paes. They will face Henri Kontinen and Heather Watson in the third round.
