Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and Caroline Garcia registered a hard-fought victory over Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva and Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik to advance to the women's doubles pre-quarter-finals at the Dubai Open on Tuesday.
The Indo-French pair won their first round match 6-4, 4-6, 10-8.
The Sania-Garcia combine will now meet fifth seeds Saisai Zheng of China and Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic in the round of 16.
The 33-year-old Sania is returning to action at the Dubai Open after recovering from a calf injury which cut short her campaign at the Australian Open in January.
Sania's first Grand Slam outing after a two-year maternity leave ended with an early exit when she retired mid-way during her doubles first-round match because of a right calf injury.
