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Wimbledon: Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis enter women's doubles final
India's Sania Mirza entered her maiden Wimbledon final, teaming with Swiss partner Martina Hingis to beat American duo Abigail Spears and Raquel Kops-Jones 6-1, 6-2 in the women's doubles semi-final on Friday.
India's Sania Mirza entered her maiden Wimbledon final, teaming with Swiss partner Martina Hingis to beat American duo Abigail Spears and Raquel Kops-Jones 6-1, 6-2 in the women's doubles semi-final on Friday.
The top seeds needed only 56 minutes to overcome fifth seeds Kops-Jones and Spears 6-1, 6-2 to enter the summit clash.
It will be Mirza's first final at The All England Club across all formats in seniors, though she had won the girls' doubles title 12 years ago with Russia's Alisa Kleybanova. Hingis, on the other hand, has two doubles (1996, 1998) and one singles title (1997) at Wimbledon to her credit.
Though the World No. 1 Indian has three mixed doubles Grand Slam titles, she is yet to win the top prize in women's doubles. The only time she reached a Major final in the category was at the 2011 French Open.
The top seeds totally dominated both sets.
In the first, they broke their opponents twice out of four opportunities, which was more than enough to seal the set in their favour. Though they gave three break point chances to Kops-Jones and Spears, they managed to save all three. The Indo-Swiss pair won 30 of the 46 points played in the set.
The fifth seeds were already rattled by then, which led to double faults thrice at crucial moments in the second set. Mirza and Hingis got two chances to break Kops-Jones and Spears and utilised both perfectly to clinch the set and the match. They were so good in the second set that they did not give a single break point opportunity to their opponents.
The world's two highest ranked players will next take on Russian second seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, who beat Hungarian-French fourth seeds Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.
In other results, India's Sumit Nagal, partnering Vietnam's Nam Hoang Ly, earned a straight sets victory to enter the boys doubles semifinals.
The eighth seeds needed only 53 minutes to defeat the Japanese team of Yusuke Takahashi and Jumpei Yamasaki 6-2, 6-3 on Court 6. Nagal and Ly will next take on Serbian-Norwegian pair of Miomir Kecmanovic and Casper Ruud for a place in the final.
