Meanwhile, Hingis’ former partner and fellow world number one Sania Mirza (along with partner Barbora Strycova) had to play two matches in a day en route the semi-finals.
Advertisement
Ironically, Mirza and Strycova beat Hingis and her new partner Coco Vandeweghe of the United States 7-5, 6-4 in the final, a victory that enabled the Indian player’s ranking.
The 29-year-old Indian will move alone to the top of the rankings as Sania and Hingis ended their highly successful partnership last month with mutual consent.
Earlier, in a joint statement posted on Twitter, the top-ranked women’s doubles pair stated that they had mutually made a decision to split following their recent defeats against lower-ranked players.
Hingis came to Cincinnati off the back of winning Olympics silver for Switzerland with Timea Bacsinszky in Rio de Janeiro. They soon found success with a 3-1 lead and Mirza’s forehand ensured a 6-4 win over the Swiss-American pair.
Post her win, Mirza tweeted, “we did itttttt”. “We both fight; we both like to play and we both like tennis obviously”, said Sania. “That’s how we felt today”.
Though Hingis and Mirza are no longer permanently together, they will still play in October’s year-end WTA Tour Championships in Singapore.
Asked about the situation of having faced her doubles partner until weeks ago, Mirza said that it was not easy.
Advertisement
“I’m not going to lie”, Mirza said after the match. It’s not easy because we are still good friends, so it’s never easy. “Of course there is no better match to play than the final, so was hard, I think for both of us”, Sania told ANI. We had to play against each other at some point.
