The year has changed but Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis’ fortunes continue to soar. The world’s best doubles pair started off from where they left last season and captured the Brisbane International at the Queensland Tennis Centre on Saturday, which is their sixth tournament win in a row.
The Indo-Swiss combine beat the all-German wildcard duo of Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic 7-5, 6-1 in the final that lasted for 1 hour and 9 minutes.
With this latest triumph, the World No. 1 pair has now extended their winning streak to 26 matches that included victories at the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and the WTA Finals.
The wins also helped them surpass Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci’s record of 25 wins in 2012. This is the best women’s doubles winning streak since Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva notched 28 straight wins in 1994.
It was not an easy affair for the top seeds as they faced some stiff resistance from the German duo in the opening set. After being broken early, they broke back and won four consecutive games to lead 4-2.
The unfazed Mirza-Hingis pair, however, broke back soon to restore parity at 4-4. Both the teams held their serves to make it 5-5, after which the Germans cracked under pressure. Serving at 5-6, Petkovic and Kerber conceded two break points and the No. 1 seeds capitalized on them to grab the first set 7-5.
The second set was completely one-sided traffic as Hingis and Mirza exhibited some brilliant shotmaking that their wildcard opponents had no answer to. They broke Kerber and Petkovic twice to wrap up the second set and the match soon afterwards.
This is the top-ranked team’s 10th title since joining forces last March. This was her 33rd doubles crown for Mirza and the 51st doubles title for the legendary Swiss Miss.
They now set their sights on the Apia International in Sydney next week where Sania Mirza is the defending champion, having won the title last year with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
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