Indo-Asian News Service
Sydney, Jan 14: Top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis survived a scare to win their 29th consecutive match and enter the women’s doubles final of the Sydney International tennis tournament here Thursday.
The Indo-Swiss tennis pair won a rain-interrupted semifinal 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in 92 minutes to beat Romanian Raluca Olaru and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan on Court 1 of the NSW Tennis Centre here.
In the process, they eclipsed the 22-year-old record set by Gigi Fernandez of the US and Natasha Zvereva of Belarus, who won 28 consecutive matches in 1994. Sania and Martina have now in sight the world record which was set in 1990 by the dynamic Czech duo of Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova, who won a whopping 44 matches in a row.
“Today (Thursday) the girls we were playing, they were playing probably the best I’ve seen them play. Yaroslava has won Slams before, Olaru was playing really well. We had to really put everything that we had and really come out with our A Game when we needed to, especially in that super tie-break,” said Sania after the match.
The world’s top ranked pair is now eyeing their second title win of the year after clinching the Brisbane International crown last week. They claimed nine titles last year en route to becoming the top ranked women’s doubles team.
However, Thursday the duo nicknamed ‘SanTina’ by their fans needed the help of rain to come back into the match. They had lost the first set 4-6 and were trailing 1-2 in the second when the rain gods intervened.
That break helped them turn the tables upon resumption as they fought back to overturn the deficit and claim the second set 6-3 and then they utilised their experience to claim the super tie-break narrowly at 10-8.
In men’s doubles, Sania’s compatriot Rohan Bopanna, partnering Romanian Florin Mergea, defeated Australians Sam Groth and John Peers 6-2, 6-4 in 57 minutes to enter the semifinal.