Melbourne VIC, Australia, 23 January 2014 | Rob Sheeley

Reigning mixed doubles champions, Jarmila Gajdosova and Matthew Ebden took another step towards defending their Australian Open title on Rod Laver Arena last night.

Gajdosova and Ebden advanced to the semifinals with a powerful 7-5 6-3 win over the second-seeded pairing of Katarina Srebotnik of Slovakia and Rohan Bopanna of India.

They will now enjoy the luxury of a day off with their semifinal to be played tomorrow. Their opponent will be the winner of today’s quarterfinal between India’s Sania Mirza and Romania’s Horia Tecau up against Julia Goerges from Germany and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi from Pakistan.