Sydney: Sania Mirza closed in on her second title of the season in as many tournaments after reaching the final of the WTA Sydney International with Czech partner Barbora Strycova on January 12. The top seeds thrashed America's and Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-2 in just 51 minutes. Sania and Barbora saved all five breakpoints in the semifinal match and broke the rivals twice in each set. They will clash for the title with Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-3, 6-4 in the other semifinal. After splitting with Martina Hingis last year in August, it is Sania's sixth final in eight tournaments. She won the Cincinnati and Tokyo events with Strycova and the New Haven tournament with Monica Niculescu. It's only at the US Open (quarterfinals) and Beijing (2nd round) events that she made an early exit. Last week, Sania had won the season-opener Brisbane event with Bethanie Mattek-Sands but ironically lost her world number one rank to the American, who jumped five places to dislodge the Indian from the top spot.
Sania Mirza-Barbora Strycova enter Sydney International final
- by Prashant Shah
- January 12, 2017 2 minutes
Sania