Mirza and Hingis in Australian Open finals with straight sets victory
Top-ranked Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis made extremely short work of their German-Czech rivals Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova, beating them 6-1, 6-0 to book a spot in the finals of the Australian Open in a mere 54 minutes.
Mirza has won a title in Melbourne – but it’s at the mixed doubles, a title she won in 2009 with Indian Grand Slam winner Mahesh Bhupathi.
Hingis, meanwhile, as one of the greatest players of all time, has titles at the singles, doubles AND mixed doubles at the Australian Open – all multiple times. She won her first doubles title here in 1997, nearly two decades ago.
Today saw a clinical performance from the Indo-Swiss pair, who have steamrolled each of their opponents in the tournament thus far. The two hit 23 winners, committing only 10 unforced errors to Pliskova and Goerges’ 22.
The coordination between the Indo-Swiss Grand Slam winners, who have been on a roll setting records this year, was visible for all to see, as Mirza’s forehand and Hingis’ legendary reflexes both served to give the pair what proved to be an extremely quick victory.
Pliskova and Goerges looked set to trouble their rivals early on in the match, looking to break them in the first set and even leading them 30-0 in that game. Mirza and Hingis staved off a break point to come back and it was all downhill for their rivals from there.
The pairs last met at the quarterfinals of the 2015 China Open, a victory that also went the way of the Indo-Swiss pair, although they had then been slightly tested.
Taxed momentarily in the quarterfinals by Anna-Lena Groenfeld and Coco Vandeweghe at the Australian Open, the two dropped a set before coming back strongly for a 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 victory then.
They will play the all-Czech combine of 7th seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the finals.