Sania-Martina extend unbeaten streak to 41 matches

Sania Mirza, Martina Hingis

Doha: Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis survived a scare before pulling off a three-set win over the Chinese pair of Yi-Fan Xu and Saisai Zheng in the WTA Qatar Open to extend their unbeaten streak to 41 matches here today.

The top seeded Indo-Swiss pair toiled for one hour and 24 minutes to prevail 6-4 4-6 10-4 over the unseeded Chinese duo to enter the quarterfinals. They got a bye in the first round in the hard court USD 2,818,000 prize money tournament.

Sania and Hingis have together won four titles this year out of an overall trophy count of 13.

They started the year with wins in Brisbane and Sydney before completing a hat-trick of Grand Slam titles at the Australian Open. The duo had won the St Petersburg Ladies title earlier this month.

Just before the tournament started, Sania took some time out to visit the DPS-Modern Indian School here and she interacted with the children.

She regaled the school children with stories from her career so far in the presence of the teaching staff and officials.