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Fri, 27th Jan 2012  Melbourne: The Indian pair of Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi crashed out of the Australian Open after suffering a straight sets defeat in the mixed doubles semifinal here on Friday.
The sixth seeded Sania-Bhupathi's campaign ended after they lost 3-6 3-6 to the eighth seeded combo of Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States and Romania's Horia Tecau in just 68 minutes at the Rod Laver Arena.
Although the match was a closely-contested affair, the American-Romanian duo played better as far as the crucial points were concerned. The Indians could hit only 17 winners as compared to 24 by their opponents.
In the opening set, the Indians managed to convert the only one breakpoint of three that they got, besides losing their serve on two occasions to hand their opponents the advantage.
The second set was on serve till 3-3 but the eighth seeds broke Sania and Bhupathi to go up 4-3 and then held their serve to make it 5-3.
The Indians once again failed to keep their serve and their opponents claimed their second consecutive break to book a place in the final.  | 
