Finland’s Henri Kontinen and Britain's Heather Watson moved a step nearer retaining their mixed doubles title by winning an entertaining battle against No.4 seeds Ivan Dodig and Sania Mirza 7-6(4), 6-4 to reach the quarter-finals.
The match was dominated in the early stages by the sheer athleticism of Croat Dodig, who also delivered real power as he bounded around the court cutting off points at the net or hammering overheads into the court and bouncing them into crowd. Watson was broken in the third game but the defending champions refused to stay on the back foot and managed to break Dodig’s serve in the tenth game.
Kontinen produced a wonderful back hand service return winner which clipped the outside line and together with Watson, kept the pressure on their opponents. Watson held her serve with the final point leaving Dodig hanging over the net as he just failed to get to a Kontinen drop shot.
The point saw Watson’s mother whistling her joy from the stands as the crowd lapped up this high-quality doubles action which needed a tie-break to settle the opening set.It was decided after 53 minutes when India's Mirza’s volley flew long.
The crowd-pleasing play continued as Watson and Kontinen booked a last-eight date with No.10 seeds Rohan Bopanna (India) and Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) who beat Nikola Mektic and Ana Konjuh of Croatia 7-6(5), 6-2.
They were joined by the busy Mate Pavic (Croatia) and Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukraine), who knocked out No.9 seeds Juan Sebastian Cabal (Colombia) and Abigail Spears (USA) 7-6(5), 5-7, 6-3. They now play Marcelo Demoliner (Brazil) and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (Spain) who were 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 winners against John Peers (Australia) and Sabine Lisicki (Germany).
No.1 seeds Jamie Murray and Martina Hingis will play the British wild cards Ken Skupski and Joss Rae who won a thrilling match 5-7, 6-5, 9-7 against Max Mirnyi and Ekaterina Makarova, the No.12 seeds.
No.2 seeds Bruno Soares (Brazil) and Elena Vesnina (Russia) combined to beat No.15 seeds Michael Venus (New Zealand ) and Barbora Krejcikova 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-2 and now meet Andre Begemann (Germany) and Nicole Melichar who saw off No.11 seeds Daniel Nestor (Canada) and Andreja Klepac 6-3, 6-7(4), 7-5.
Kontinen had earlier joined forces with Peers to move into the men’s doubles semi-finals. The No.1 seeds had to battle hard for three hours 17 minutes to finally overcome No.10 seeds Ryan Harrison (USA) and Venus, having gone two sets to one down. Kontinen and Peers won this year’s Australian Open and are favourites to add the Wimbledon title to their collection after a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(4), 7-6(7), 6-1 win. They will now face No.4 seeds Lukasz Kubot (Poland) and Marcelo Melo (Brazil) in the last four after they beat the British brothers Ken and Neal Skupski 7-6(11), 6-4, 6-4.
In the other semi-final, the Croatian pair of Nikola Mektic and Franko Skugor took over three hours to register a 6-7(8), 6-4, 7-6(5), 7-5 victory over Hans Podlipnik-Castillo (Chile) and Andrei Vasilevski (Belarus). They will now line up against No.16 seeds Oliver Marach (Austria) and Pavic, who overcame the experienced pair of Max Mirnyi (Belarus) and Marcin Matkowski (Poland) 7-5, 6-2, 6-2.
The ladies’ doubles featured a great battle between Russian No.2 seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, who exchanged sets with Australian No.8 seeds Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua before claiming a semi-final place courtesy of a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 win.
The other semi-final features No.9 seeds Hao-Ching Chan (Taipei) and Monica Niculescu (Romania) who defeated Catherine Bellis (USA) and Marketa Vondrousova (Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-4 and now come up against Makoto Ninomiya (Japan) and Renata Voracova (Czech Republic). They reached the last four with an impressive 6-4, 6-4 win over the fancied pair of Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) and Kristina Mladenovic (France).
Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kvete Peske, the No.2 seeds reached the semi-finals beating No.3 seeds Martina Hingis and Yung-Jan Chan 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.