Martina Hingis is sitting next to Sania Mirza in one of Wimbledon’s small press rooms and cannot contain her happiness.
Wearing a huge grin, the words ‘it’s awesome’ come tumbling from her lips.
She is referring to the fact that she’s into the last four of the Wimbledon ladies' doubles, 17 years since lifting the doubles' trophy here.
“To be in the semi-finals of the doubles with Sania, it’s like a dream come true,” the former world No.1 declared. “Wimbledon is the most prestigious Grand Slam, you step on the grass court out here and it is pure joy. I’m really enjoying the adventure.”
The top seeds continued their sprint through the top half of the draw on Wednesday with a convincing 7-5, 6-3 win over No.9 seeds and 2015 Roland Garros finalists Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova, although the match was not without incident.
You step on the grass court out here and it is pure joy
With Mirza serving for the match at 5-3, two ball boys prematurely rushed on to the court mistaking a Hingis volley for a winner, prompting the umpire to call for the point to be replayed. At the time the No.1 seeds were defending two break points. Did the interruption put them off?
“Actually I think it kind of helped because we both relaxed a bit,” Mirza insisted. “I haven’t dropped serve the whole match and I’m serving at 15-40. We both just smiled and I think it maybe helped because I hit a big serve after that and we were back in the game.”
The women, who teamed up earlier this year and have already amassed three tour titles together, have yet to drop a set this tournament.
“We knew if we didn’t bring our A game it wasn’t going to be enough, I think it’s really good both of us were able to lift our game,” Mirza added. “We feel privileged to be here and to be playing our best and doing what we love...”
They will now face Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears who ousted No.3 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-2.
Elsewhere, No.4 seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic overcame No.7 seeds Su-Wei Hsieh and Flavia Pennetta in a tricky 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 contest for a place in the last four.
“We started the match on a very high level,” Babos said. “We both played very good and after it was getting more difficult. They changed a little bit their game plan and of course it’s not possible to play a whole match like the level we had in the beginning. Maybe we started to let them play their game instead of playing our game. In the third set we put everything together and we were very aggressive.”
They will next take on No.2 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, who saw off veterans Cara Black and Lisa Raymond, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6.
