Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis cruise into Australian Open semifinals

The world number one pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis today stormed into the semi-finals of the Australian Open, the first Grand Slam of the season. The Indo-Swiss duo defeated the German-American team of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Coco Vandeweghe, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1. As a pair, this was Sania and Hingis' 34th victory in a row. They are now 11 wins away from breaking the 1990 record of 44 straight victories by Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova. In the Singles, world number one Serena Williams today sailed into the semi-finals beating fifth seed Maria Sharapova for the 18th consecutive time. The 6-time Australian Open champion won the quarter-final in straight sets, 6-4, 6-1. Serena is just one Grand Slam short of tying with Steffi Graf in winning the most number of Grand Slam titles in the Open Era. Graf had bagged 22 titles, while Serena is second at 21. Besides, the world number one American is 3 titles shy of Margaret Court who has an all-time record of winning 24 Grand Slam trophies. In the semi-finals, Serena will take on fourth placed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland.