Press Trust of India
Singapore, Oct 30: World’s numero uno women’s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis continued their rampaging form and extended their winning streak to 20 matches in a row after reaching the semifinals of the WTA Finals here Friday. The top seeds took just 90 minutes to get past the challenge of fourth-seeded Timea Babos of Hungary and Kristina Mladenovic of France 6-4, 7-5 in their final round-robin match and finished on top of their group with a 3-0 record.
Saina and Martina lifted their game just at the right time and made full use of the two breaks they got during the tie. The Indo-Swiss pair got breakpoint opportunities at four-all in the first set and five-all in the second, and grabbed the chances with both hands to serve both sets out.
“We had played them twice before and we were one-all, so we knew we had to come out and play well, like we’ve been trying to do every match here at the WTA Finals,” Sania said after the match. “We managed to be at our best and that was enough for us to win the game,” she added.
After joining hands, Sania and Martina have won eight women’s doubles titles, including two Grand Slam titles at Wimbledon and the US Open this year.
“It feels pretty good!” Martina said after the victory. “Sania came up to me earlier in the year and asked me why don’t we try to play together, and at first we both had our partners, but as soon as we started we won a hat-trick of titles at Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston. It was amazing how fast we clicked. It was a dream to come here to Singapore, and hopefully we can keep winning here and finish top in the championship,” she added.
Sania and Martina will face third seeds, Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan of Chinese Taipei in the semifinals.
Paes-Kubot beaten
The Indo-Polish tennis combine of Leander Paes and Lukasz Kubot suffered an unexpected loss at the Valencia Open here as the second seeds were beaten by the Australian-Brazilian pairing of Chris Guccione and Andre Sa 6-7 (6-8), 4-6 in the men’s doubles quarterfinals of the 5,37,050 tournament at Valencia . The first set was hotly contested and neither pair won a break of serve as the set went into the tie-break.
