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Sania Mirza-Barbora Strycova lose in Sydney International final
Sania Mirza and Czech partner Barbora Strycova lost 4-6, 4-6 to Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Sydney International final on Friday.
Sania Mirza and Czech partner Barbora Strycova lost 4-6, 4-6 to Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in Sydney International final on Friday.
The top-seeds lost rather tamely, giving out early breaks in both the sets.
On Thursday, Sania Mirza has closed in on her second title of the season in as many tournaments after reaching the final in Sydney with Strycova. They thrashed America’s Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-2 in just 51 minutes.
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Sania and Strycova saved all five breakpoints in the semifinal match and broke the rivals twice in each set. Babos and Pavlyuchenkova had defeated Andreja Klepac and María José Martínez Sánchez 6-3, 6-4 in the other semifinal.
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After splitting with Martina Hingis last year in August, it was Sania’s sixth final in eight tournaments.
She won the Cincinnati and Tokyo events with Strycova and the New Haven tournament with Monica Niculescu. It’s only at the US Open (Quarterfinals) and Beijing (2nd round) events that she made an early exit.
Last week, Sania won the season-opener Brisbane event with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, but ironically lost her world No 1 rank to the American, who jumped five places to dislodge the Indian from the top spot.
