Indians at Wimbledon: Paes in semis, Sania's campaign ends

Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic entered the semifinals in men's doubles while another Indian Sania Mirza and her Romanian partner Horia Tecau lost 5-7, 3-6 to the 10th-seeded British-Australian pair of Jamie Murray and Casey Dellacqua in the mixed doubles pre-quarters at the Wimbledon Championships in London on Thursday.

Sania, who has tremendous ground strokes, looked off colour and it was Tecau who kept the team in fight.

Sania and Horia, seeded sixth could convert only one of the seven break chances they had in the match and that cost them the match.

Sania had earlier lost in the second round of the women's doubles competition, where she partnered Zimbabwe's Cara Black.

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Meanwhile, fifth seeded Paes and Stepanek recorded an upset win over third seeds Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia in a quarterfinal match. The Indo-Czech pair won 3-6, 7-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the 152-minute contest.

In the semifinals, Paes and Stepanek take on the unseeded pair of Vasek Pospisil of Canada and Jack Sock of United States. Pospisil and Sock stunned the second seeded pair of Alexander Peya of Austria and Bruno Soares of Brazil 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-4 in another quarterfinal match.

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It was, however, curtains for Rohan Bopanna and his Czech partner Andrea Hlavackova as they lost their second round mixed doubles match.

Seventh seeded Bopanna and Hlavackova conceded the opening set advantage to lose 6-3, 5-7, 3-6 against Russia's Mikhail Elgin and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia.

The two-hour and two-minute battle saw Bopanna and Hlavackova committing 11 unforced errors against six by the Russian-Australian combination.

Bopanna's campaign is over in Wimbledon as he had earlier lost in the men's doubles with Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-haq Qureshi.