Sania Mirza-Vesnina in Dubai Open semis

Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina entered the women’s doubles semifinals of the Dubai Open tennis event Thursday, defeating Maria-Jose Matrinez Sanchez and Shahar Peer.

The second seeds got the better of the Spanish-Israeli combine 6-1, 4-6, 10-8 in the quarterfinals, which was their first match of the tournament after getting a bye in the opening round.

The Indo-Russian duo next play China’s Peng Shuai and Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh, who defeated Czech Republic’s Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-3, 2-6, 10-5.