The Indo-Swiss pair of Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis won the first grand slam of the year defeating their Czech opponents 7-6, 6-3.
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Hingis, a three-time singles champion at the Australian Open, and Mirza dominated the first-set tiebreaker preceded by eight service breaks, four by each team.
Hingis, who was knocked out by Mirza and Croatia’s Ivan Dodig in the mixed doubles quarter-finals, took a medical time out at the end of the first set to have treatment to her right shoulder, but did not appear troubled. The match was littered with breaks with the two teams struggling to hold serve throughout. It is to be noted that the Paes-Hingis couple are unseeded while Sania-Dogic are seeds of a higher order.
It was the 35-year-old Martina’s 12th women’s doubles title.
Continuing their superb form this year, Sania and Martina extended their unbeaten run to 36 with this title triumph.
The top seeded Indo-Croat pair will next face fifth seeds Elena Vesnina and Bruno Soares for a spot in the summit clash.
She adds: “It will go away soon”. Djokovic has already beaten Murray in three Australian Open finals and the world number one will get the advantage of an extra day’s rest after he knocked out Roger Federer in four sets in Thursday’s semi-final. Hradecka sent a forehand long to give the top seeds a breakpoint and netted a backhand to make it 3-3.
Hingis and Mirza were awarded the Wimbledon, the US Open titles as well as the season during the ending of WTA finals and have been the prevailing toppers of the circuit during 2015.
“I feel lonely without my partner”, she said, smiling.
Mirza echoed her partner’s sentiments and says she is wowed by how they’ve been able to sustain such a high level.
Hingis – a former No. 1 singles player – retired from the sport in 2007 after a two-year ban for testing positive for a microscopic amount of cocaine at Wimbledon.
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Kerber responded with a laugh and said, “Steffi, write me please”.
