Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis survived a scare before pulling off a three-set victory over the Chinese pair of Yi-Fan Xu and Saisai Zheng in the WTA Qatar Open to extend their unbeaten streak to 41 matches, in Doha, on Wednesday.
The top seeded Indo-Swiss pair toiled for an hour and 24 minutes to prevail 6-4, 4-6, 10-4 over the unseeded Chinese duo and enter the quarter-finals.
They had a bye in the first round of the hardcourt US $2,818,000 tournament.
The Sania-Hingis pair has won four titles this year in an overall trophy count of 13.
They started the year with triumphs in Brisbane and Sydney before completing a hat-trick of Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open.
They won the St Petersburg Ladies' title earlier this month.
Just before the tournament started, Sania took some time out to visit the DPS-Modern Indian School and interacted with the children.
She regaled the children with stories from her career so far in the presence of the teaching staff and officials.
