Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and USA's Rajeev Ram on Sunday advanced to the quarterfinals of the mixed doubles event at the ongoing Australian Open. Sania and Ram defeated the duo of Australia's Ellen Perez and Netherlands' Matwe Middlekoop 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 in the second-round match at Court 3.
The pair will now face the winners of the all Australian tie between Sam Stosur/Matthew Ebden and Jaimee Fourlis/Jason Kubler in the quarters.
The unseeded Indo-American duo took one hour 27 minutes to dispatch the Australian and Dutch pair.
Sania and Ram had cruised past the Serbian pair of Aleksandra Krunic and Nicola Cacic in the first-round match on Thursday.
Earlier this week, the six-time Grand Slam winner Mirza had been knocked out in the first round of the women's doubles event.
Mirza, who will retire after the 2022 season, is the only Indian remaining in fray in the season's first Grand Slam after Rohan Bopanna and his Croatian partner Darija Jurak Schreiber made a first-round exit from the mixed doubles event on Saturday.