Sania and China's Peng enter US Open semis

Sania Mirza reached her first Grand Slam semi-final of the year with China's Shuai Peng after outclassing Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova in the women's doubles, at the US Open, in New York, on Thursday.

The fourth seeded Indo-Chinese pair dispatched the fifth seed Hungarian-Czech combo 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the quarter-final which lasted one hour and 56 minutes.

This is Sania's best showing in the Grand Slams this year as she fell in the third rounds of the Australian Open and at Wimbledon while at the French Open she had crashed out in the first round.

Sania and Peng face second seeds Martina Hingis and Yung-Jan Chan, the pair which had defeated the Indian and her Belgian partner Kirsten Flipkens at Wimbledon.

Sania has played with different partners at the Grand Slams this season. She had started the season by teaming up with Barbora Strycova. They had lost in the third round of the Australian Open to Eri Hozumi and Miyu Kato.

At the Roland Garros she played with Yaroslava Shvedova and they were beaten by Daria Gavrilova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the opening round.

This season Sania has managed to win only one title -- Brisbane WTA event with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands -- and ended up finalist in Sydney with Strycova.

This is in complete contrast to her stupdendous show in the 2016 season, during which she won eight titles, including five with Swiss great Martina Hingis.

She had ended the 2016 year as number one but has now slipped to number nine as she struggled to find a consistent partner after splitting with Hingis.