South Africa’s surviving women’s competitor in the Flushing Meadows grand slam, Liezel Huber, progressed to the third round with partner Sania Mirza.
The pairing overcame Stephanie Cohen-Aloro (France) and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (Spain) 6-0 6-3.
This was the South Africa-Indian pairs’ second straight-set victory for the tournament, after overcoming American pair Angela Haynes and Neha Uberio 6-4 6-0 in the first round.
Huber and Mirza had a lower break-point conversion rate than Haynes and Oberio, but positive play earned them 13 breaks points against 3.
This was due in chief to their vastly superior winning stats on first serve (70%) and useful number of points won receiving serve (59%).
Huber will be relieved to progress, as her opening mixed doubles match with Leos Friedl failed to progress past a tough first encounter against 4th-seeded Zi Yan (China) and Todd Perry (Australia).
After the first set went 7-5 their opponent’s way, Huber and Friedl played well to take a rain-interrupted second set 6-3.
The Yan-Perry combination was too powerful in the end, though they had to play 17 games in the third set to win eventually, 7-5 3-6 10-7.
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