The top Indo-Swiss doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won their eighth title of the season, with a 6-7 (9), 6-1, 10-8 victory over Chinese Taipean pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan in the China Open final in Beijing on Saturday. The top pair in the doubles circuit this year, needed 1 hour 41 minutes to claim the summit clash in the $4.7 million prize money tournament. They broke the first service game of their opponent’s to take an early 2-0 lead at the Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Centre. But their opponents immediately broke back to be on level terms 2-2. From there on the two team’s keenly contested and held on to their serves. The evenness extended to a tie-breaker where Sania-Martina blinked first at 9-11 to surrender the first set.
Sania-Martina upped their intensity to race to a 4-1 lead in the second set and claimed it 6-1 to force the match into the third set tie-breaker. The tie-breaker was also closely fought with both teams matching each other stroke for stroke. But ultimately the Indo-Swiss duo held their nerve to claim the title at 10-8. They won 82 of the total 145 points played, a 56 per cent winning rate. The leading women’s tennis doubles pair entered the final, thumping the Chinese duo of Chen Liang and Yafan Wang 6-2, 6-3 in a one-sided clash on Friday.
