Madrid Open: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis reach final
The top-ranked women’s doubles team of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis continue their fine run on clay as they reached the final of the WTA Premier Mandatory event – the Mutua Madrid Open – on Friday. The Indo-Swiss duo needed just 50 minutes to dismiss the unseeded pair of Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva, 6-2, 6-0.
Mirza and Hingis had a few problems in the initial stages of the match as they were broken twice in the first set. But the top seeds were quick to rebound and they broke their opponents four times to clinch the first set 6-2.
The second set was totally a one-way traffic as the unstoppable duo raced through to book themselves a final berth.
Next up: Garcia and Mladenovic
In the summit clash, they have a tough job as they will come up against the fifth seeds Kristina Mladenovic and Caroline Garcia. The all-French team defeated two-time Grand Slam winners Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina, 6-2, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
Garcia and Mladenovic have been the most in-form pair on clay this season and they have captured two titles at Charleston and Stuttgart. In the latter, they toppled Mirza and Hingis in the final.
ATP – Murray races into the semi-finals
In other early results from Madrid on Friday, second seed and defending men’s singles champion Andy Murray put up a sterling performance to thrash eighth seed Tomas Berdych, 6-3, 6-2. The Scot did not even face a single break point in the entire 1-hour 16-minute contest while he broke Berdych three times.
The World No. 2 will next meet the winner of the quarter-final match between Rafael Nadal and Joao Sousa.