Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek stunned formidable Taipei duo of Yung-Jan Chan and Chia-Jung Chuang to book a doubles semi-final berth at the US $ 2,100,000 Pacific Life Open WTA championships in Indian Wells.
The Indo-US combine prevailed 7-5, 4-6, 11-9 in a gruelling quarter-final encounter of the Tier I event, on Wednesday night.
Chuang and Chan are ranked ninth and 10th in the world in the doubles ranking, while Sania and Mattek stand at 25 and 36 in the WTA charts, respectively.
The winners next take on Chinese third-seed pair of Zi Yan and Jie Zheng, who defeated Czech-Polish combine of Iveta Benesova and Agnieszka Radwanska 6-0, 6-4 in their last eight encounter.
Meanwhile, the Indian challenge ended in the men's Master Series event with the straight sets defeat of Mahesh Bhupathi and his partner Mark Knowles.
The sixth seed Indo-Bahamas duo lost 3-6, 4-6 to fourth seeds Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram of Israel in the quarter-finals.
Leander Paes and his Australian partner Paul Hanley had also crashed out in the quarter-finals.
