Sania Mirza lines up for another title with Cara Black

Sania Mirza and Cara Black made their second successive final as they beat the top-seeded Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-4 in the doubles semifinals of the $5,185,625 China Open in Beijing on Friday.

The 26-year-old Sania will be looking for her fifth title of the season, from her sixth final appearance. She had lost only the Stuttgart final, with Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the US. The seasoned Cara Black will be trying to win her 57^th career title.

The eighth-seeded Indo-Zimabwean combination that had won Tokyo last week and had split a prize purse of $122,000, was cruising at 4-1 in the second set after having clinched a decisive break in the tenth game of the first, before the top seeds salvaged some pride with a fight back.

There will be a lot at stake in the final as the champion team will get 1000 WTA points and $291,000. The runner-up will get $146,000 and 700 WTA points.

The other semifinal will feature, the second seed and Wimbledon champions Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Shuai Peng of China against Vera Dushevina of Russia and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain, later in the evening under the lights.

Rohan Bopanna makes final in Tokyo

At times truth is weird. It is indeed a weird fact that Rohan Bopanna and his French partner Edouard Roger-Vasselin have made their maiden doubles final as a pair, only now.

Considering the way they had frightened the Bryan twins, Bob and Mike, in the semifinals of Wimbledon, it is surprising that the Indo-French pair is giving itself a chance to win a title for the first time.

The fourth-seeded Bopanna and Roger-Vasselin survived a setpoint in the second set tie-break to beat Treat Huey of Philippines and Dominic Inglot of Britain 6-4, 7-6(6) in the doubles semifinals of the $1,437,800 Rakuten Japan Open in Tokyo on Friday.

Among other things, the victory also propelled the 33-year-old Bopanna, ranked No.7 in the world, past the $2 million mark in terms of prize money. He may have been ranked as high as No.3 in the world in July, but professional tennis provides the right indication about the consistency of a player through the prize money, more than anything else.

Bopanna will attempt to improve his record in the finals, as he has won eight titles from 24 finals. In contrast, the 29-year-old Roger-Vasselin who had made the singles final earlier this season, has won five doubles titles from six finals.

The indo-French combination has to wait for the winner of the other semifinal featuring Jamie Murray of Britain and John Peers of Australia against Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer of Austria, scheduled for Saturday.

The adequate rest before the final should enhance the chances for Bopanna to win his second title of the season from his third final, after the one he had won in Marseille in February with Colin Fleming of Britain.

Ranked No.17 in the race to London for the year-end World Championship, with 1350 points, the Indo-French duo will be keen to get the maximum possible 500 points from the tournament.

After the high of the last season, when Bopanna made the final with Mahesh Bhupathi in the World Championship, it will be interesting to see whether he makes the cut this time. Mahesh does not have a chance as he figures at No.26 with Bopanna in the race. The top eight teams make it to the year-end championship.

Meanwhile, Leander Paes had a rest day before his semifinal in partnership with Daniel Nestor of Canada, against Fabio Fognini and Andreas Seppi of Italy.

Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan loses quarterfinals, Mithun Murali makes doubles final

KIGALI (RWANDA), OCT. 4:

The second-seeded Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan lost 4-6, 6-7(5) to the fifth-seeded Alexander Lazov of Bulgaria in the quarterfinals of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Thursday.

Quite understandably the 329^th ranked Jeevan not happy about losing to the 643^rd ranked Lazov, but has said that he would get back strongly into the circuit after a week of training at his base in Germany.

Mithun Murali found the top-seeded Gerald Mulzer of Austria too smart in singles quarterfinals, but gave himself another shot at him, by making the doubles final with Jannis Liniger of Switzerland.

The results:

Singles (quarterfinals): Gerald Melzer (Aut) bt Mithun Murali 6-0, 6-1; Alexander Lazov (Bul) bt Jeevan Nedunchezhiyan 6-4, 7-6(5).

Doubles (semifinals): Lukas Jastraunig and Gerald Melzer (Aut) bt Sagar Ahuja and Kunal Anand 7-6(3), 6-2; Jannis Liniger (Sui) and Mithun Murali bt Francesco Garzelli and Lorenzo Papasidero (Ita) 6-3, 6-1.

Akash Wagh loses doubles semifinals

MESHREF (KUWAIT), OCT. 4:

Akash Wagh in partnership with Matias Castro of Argentina lost 2-6, 2-6 to the the top-seeded Lewis Burton and Marcus Willis of Britain in the doubles semifinals of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Thursday.

Ramkumar in doubles final

SABADELL (SPAIN), OCT. 4:

The second-seeded R. Ramkumar and David Perez Sanz of Spain beat Jaume Pla Malfeito of the US and Jean-Marc Werner of Germany 6-3, 7-6(2) in the doubles semifinals of the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Thursday.

In the final, the Indo-Spanish duo will challenge the top-seeded Eduard Esteve Lobato and Oriol Roca Batalla of Spain.

Rishika Sunkara in quarterfinals

SHARM EL SHEIKH (EGYPT), OCT. 4:

The fourth-seeded Rishika Sunkara beat qualifier Anabel Ossombi of Ukraine 6-1, 6-2 in the pre-quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tournament on Thursday.

In the quarterfinals, Rishika will play the fifth-seeded Ipek Soylu of Turkey.

Snehadevi Reddy loses quarterfinals

HONG KONG, OCT. 4:

The top-seeded Snehadevi Reddy was beaten 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 by Siqi Cao of China in the girls quarterfinals of the ITF grade-3 junior tennis tournament on Thursday.

After a long spell of training in Europe, the 16-year-old Snehadevi, who had won the Aisan junior girls title, has been competing in the junior circuit to test her calibre.