Martina Hingis thrilled at the prospect of being World No 1 again as her partnership with Sania Mirza rolls on with second title of season
Sania Mirza (right) and Martina Hingis celebrate winning the Sydney International title yesterday
Sydney: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis' awe-inspiring run continued unabated as they lifted their second trophy of the season with the WTA Apia International title after clinching their 30th win a row, here yesterday.
Sania Mirza (right) and Martina Hingis celebrate winning the Sydney International title yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
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The triumph over Caroline Garcia and Kristina ladenovic though was not without initial hiccups as the top seeds lost the first set meekly before eking out a 1-6, 7-5, 10-5 win in one hour and 13 minutes.
The World No 1 team trailed 1-6, 2-5 at one stage but they yet again came out unscathed, levelling the second set 5-5 and then sealed it to stretch it to a Super tie-breaker. The US open and Wimbledon champions raced to a 8-3 lead in the decider and clinched the issue comfortably to stretch their unbeaten run to an incredible 30 matches.
"At 6-1, 5-2 the only thing we could say to each other was that it was only one break," Mirza added. "That's the only positive you can find from a situation like that.
We tried to hold our serve for 5-3 to give ourselves another chance, then we had a huge game at 5-3 and the momentum went in our favor," Sania said after the win. "We're really happy to win another tournament. We're really happy with the way we fought," she added.
11th title together
It was the 11th title together for the Indo-Swiss pair as continuing the good show from 2015 when they won 9 titles including the year-end WTA finale.
Martina said it was a test of nerves for them. "It was definitely a great test, and against a great new team. They were playing together for the first time this week, and I think we're going to see a lot more of them. We had to take our chances," the Swiss said.
They now have 11 WTA doubles titles together: Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and the WTA Finals last year, and now Brisbane and Sydney this year.
The Swiss-Indian partnership is also an impeccable 11-1 together in WTA doubles finals. Adding to that, when new rankings will be issued on Monday, Martina will join Sania as joint World No 1 on the WTA doubles rankings.
It will be Hingis' first time at No 1 since the Indian Wells fortnight in 2000. "I think it's another chapter in my career, definitely. When Sania became No 1 in Charleston that was a huge stepping stone for her, and now for me, 16 years later, who would have thought I would have another opportunity to become No 1 again? It was a dream and now it's reality," Martina said. "But I've felt we're the No 1 team for a while now," she added.
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