Sania Mirza on song, wins second title in a row, fifth of the season

Sania Mirza and Cara Black overwhelmed Vera Dushevina of Russia and Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain 6-2, 6-2 in the women’s doubles final of the $5,185,625 China Open in Beijing on Saturday.

The second successive title for the Indo-Zimbabwean duo was worth 1000 WTA points $291,000. It was the fifth title of the season and 19^th career doubles title for Sania, whereas it was the 57^th title for Cara Black, the former world No.1 doubles player. The two have won two titles in two weeks, playing together for the first time in their career.

In an otherwise sweet sailing to the title, there was a bit of anxiety at the climax as the eighth-seeded pair missed a matchpoint in the seventh game, but overcame a game-point on the opponent’s serve in the next game to close out the contest in an hour and seven minutes.

‘’To play so well with a new partner and to win two titles on the trot, it doesn’t happen every day. It is tough to top this one’’, Sania was quoted as saying by the WTA.

‘’We will try to top this, though. We will try to do an off-season together, maybe in India, work on some things together. Because in tennis you always have to keep improving, to keep winning, and always trying to take it to the next level. It is something we both want. We are going to make a collective effort’’,  Sania said.

‘’We couldn’t have asked for a better start.’’ Cara said. ‘’We will be playing together next year. So this is a pretty good start for that. We are looking forward to giving it a shot and playing the whole year’’, said the 34-year-old Cara who had played in only two $25,000 ITF women’s events in October last year, a few months after delivering a baby boy (Lachlan).

After beating the Wimbledon champions, the second-seeded Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Shuai Peng of China in the semifinals, 3-6, 6-1, 10-8, it was a disappointment Russian-Spanish duo, but it was tough against Sania and Cara, as the pair did not drop a set in five rounds in the whole tournament. The runner-up had to be content with $146,000 and 700 WTA points.

Though the combination itself was an afterthought at the end of the season, Sania and Cara were able to dominate a field that had two teams that were among two of the four to have qualified for the season ending championship apart from the multiple Olympic and Grand Slam champions, the all-conquering Williams sisters, Serena and Venus.

Leander Paes and Daniel Nestor miss two matchpoints, lose doubles semifinals

Sania Mirza’s fluent win could be appreciated better in the light of an unexpected ouster for the top-seeded Leander Paes and Daniel Nestor of Canada, as they missed two matchpoints on serve in the tenth game of the second set to bow out in the men’s doubles semifinals.

Paes and Nestor with 134 doubles titles between them, and only one of it as a pair, led 5-4, 40-15 in the second set before the Italians turned the match around, winning four games on the trot and forcing the super tie-break.

The Indo-Canadian pair led 7-4 and 8-6 in the match tie-break before the Italians won four points in a row to ensure themselves at least $74,250 and 300 ATP points. Paes and partner had to settle for $35,000 and 180 ATP points.

The 26-year-old Fabio Fognini has won five doubles titles and the 29-year-old Andreas Seppi is yet to win a doubles title on the Tour. The duo will challenge the seasoned Max Mirnyi of Belarus and Horia Tecau of Romania. The latter got a walk-over from Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland.

Mithun Murali loses doubles final

KIGALI (RWANDA), OCT. 5:

The unseeded Jannis Liniger of Switzerland and Mithun Murali were beaten 6-2, 6-4 by the top-seeded Lukas Jastraunig and Gerald Melzer of Austria in the doubles final of the $15,000 ITF men’s Futures tennis tournament on Friday.

The defeat apart, it was a welcome return to the circuit for the 31-year-old Mithun to win matches in singles and doubles over a fortnight after he had played his last tournament way back in April 2011 in the professional circuit.

National champion Ramkumar wins doubles title

SABADELL (SPAIN), OCT. 5:

The second-seeded David Perez Sanz of Spain and R. Ramkumar wont he doubles title with a 6-7(4), 6-3, 10-8 victory over the top-seeded Eduard Esteve Lobato and Oriol Roca Batalla of Spain in the doubles final fo the $10,000 ITF men’s Futures tennsi tournament.

Rishika Sunkara loses quarterfinals

SHARM EL SHEIKH (EGYPT), OCT. 5:

The fourth-seeded Rishika Sunkara lost her way after a good start and was beaten 3-6, 6-1, 6-0 by the fifth-seeded Ipek Soylu of Turkey in the quarterfinals of the $10,000 ITF women’s tennis tournament on Friday.