25 August 2013
NEW HAVEN: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza notched up her third title of the season and 17th overall as she lifted the women's doubles trophy at the WTA New Haven Open along with new partner Jie Zheng.
Playing just their fourth event together, third seeds Sania and Jie pipped the second-seeded pair ofAnabel Medina Garrigues and Katarina Srebotnik 6-3 6-4 in the summit clash.
Mirza and Zheng fell behind an early break but quickly got back and from 3-3 in the first set, they won six of the next seven games to capture the first set and take control of the second.
They did have a bit of trouble closing it out, as at 5-2 in the second set, Medina and Srebotnik won two games in a row and then got to deuce on Mirza's serve before the Indo-Chinese duo finished off the triumph on their fifth match point.
"We didn't start the tournament too well, winning a couple of what you might call ugly matches," Mirza said. "But we kept getting better with each match. It was great to play our best match in the final.
"It's tough with this format. It's relentless. There's really no margin of error with the deuce points, the super tie-break. It's just a toss-up sometimes. Even today's match was 63 64, but it was much tighter with the deuce points. The last set we won three deuce games."
It was Sania's fourth final of the year and 25th overall. Sania, the only Indian woman to win a Grand Slam title, had won two titles this season before this triumph. Both the previous titles came with American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Published by: The Times Of India