Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black ended their season and partnership with a remarkable high of WTA finals win.
The Indo-Zimbabwean pair, who had earlier lost thrice this season to Su-Wei Hseih of Chinese Taipei and Shuai Peng of China prevailed over familiar opponents in a completely lopsided contest. Incidentally, this is their fifth meeting this season, the last encounter having ended in favor of Mirza and Black in Montreal (August 2014).
The first started started perfectly for Sania and Cara, who broke the Chinese pair in the opening game and proceeded to hold their serve. Things only got better as Black, who was moving like a livewire around the net in near age-defying manner helped fashion some astonishing returns at net. She frequently placed the returns immaculately between the Hseih and Peng, causing their communication to break down. They broke again during the fifth and seventh game of the set taking the set 6-1.
The second set got even better as Sania-Cara didn't allow the rivals to settle at all. The serves were decidedly better from their semi-finals, and if they were tired after that two hour thriller, they didn't show it. Overwhelming their opponents 6-0 , they ended their season and their partnership on a high. The pair break up later this season since Black, who has a two-year old son plans to spend more time with her family in 2015. Ironically, Sania will pair up with Su-Wei Hseih who she vanquished here.
Sania Mirza and Cara Black had teamed up during the end of 2013, clinching two consecutive titles together in Tokyo and Beijing to kick off their season. Sania also won mixed doubles gold in Asian games (marking her third consecutive Asian games finals appearance in the event category) and a bronze in the women's doubles event. In addition she is also the reigning US Open mixed doubles champion with Bruno Soares.
The Semifinal: Sania and Cara had a nail-biting come-from behind victory in the semifinals, which included a Super Tie Break against Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik to cruise into the summit clash. The Czech-Slovenian pair had taken the first set (4-6), and were on course at 5-5 in the second when Sania sent a sizzling cross-court to fire up their resistance. Black then cover good ground to break the rivals and they held their serve to restore parity with a 7-5 scoreline. The final set however saw the Sania and Black sink to 6-9 in the decisive super tie break. It looked like a matter of one unforced error and the dream of playing the year-end finals could be over. But showing amazing resilience, the pair defended four set points and reeled off five straight winners to clinch the issue 11-9 much to the joy of fervent support of the Indian contingent in Singapore.
Even in the quarterfinals they had to negotiate a dramatic finish and stave off set points.