Sania Mirza remembers meeting Rohan Bopanna for the first time as a 14-year-old at the national tennis championships.
"Rohan was the up and coming 20-year-old back then," she recalls with a chuckle.
That bond formed all those years ago has endured and strengthened as they have become weathered veterans, travelling the unforgiving tennis circuit as professionals. Sania and Rohan are pals.
For a few hours on Wednesday though their friendship will be consigned to the back burner. Their clash in the mixed doubles quarterfinals offers a delicious prospect. Between them, there are no secrets. It is unlikely either owns a trick to surprise the other. They have often played together, most recently at the Olympic Games in Rio where they came within touching distance of winning a medal. But now they have different allies on their side of the court in a quest to make a Grand Slam semi-final -- Mirza has Croat Ivan Dodig and Bopanna, Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski.
"Rohan and I last played against each other at the US Open a few years ago," is all Mirza would say at the end of her second round match. "I am looking forward to playing him again."
"The only thing to say is one Indian is going to go through to the semis," Bopanna said when asked about the prospect of playing against Mirza earlier in the morning. "It is a tough match no matter who we play. I think mixed doubles with the format, every match is tough."
While Mirza & Dodig are seeded second and Bopanna & Dabrowski are unseeded, the fickle nature of the scoring format means there are no favourites in mixed doubles clashes. Both Mirza & Dodig as well as Bopanna & Dabrowski won their second round matches via the super tiebreaker after splitting the first two sets against their respective teams.
Mirza & Dodig were locked at six points apiece in the decider against Saisai Zheng and Alexander Peya before pulling away to clinch the match. In contrast, Bopanna and Dabrowski produced a sizzling sequence of shots to storm to an 8-0 lead in their decider against fifth seeds Lukasz Kubot and Yung-Jan Chan to seal victory.
"It goes so fast, you have to be ready," Bopanna told ESPN. "I think we got the first two points on Kubot's serve and that really starts you off. Luckily I got two serves in and that made a big difference, puts pressure on them straightaway. A couple of the shots, I think I have to watch a replay, how I managed to hit those ones."
"When the moment comes, you just try to focus as best you can because it goes so fast right from the very beginning," Dabrowski said. "As a team we just try to support each other, no matter what the score is, because the momentum can change at any moment."
It may not count for much, but Mirza & Dodig will start the encounter as the slightly more pedigreed team. They have played the last five Grand Slams together, reaching the semi-finals at last year's Australian Open and the final at the French Open. Bopanna and Dabrowski reached the quarterfinals at their first tournament together, the 2016 US Open, and have repeated the trick in Melbourne this year. At 24, the Canadian will be the youngest player on court and victory will take her further than ever before in her Grand Slam career. She relies on the experience of her partner, 12 years older, to get them across the line.
"I am a pretty good listener, so whatever Rohan tells me to do I just try to execute as best I can," Dabrowski chuckles.
"She has such a big and aggressive game, so I make sure I tell her to keep using that," Bopanna says. "We'd rather play aggressive and win or lose, that is the best way to play tennis."