Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis win the Miami Open doubles title
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis couldn’t have asked for a better start to their doubles partnership. The Indo-Swiss pair beat second seeded Russian pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 7-5, 6-1 to win the Miami Open.
This title is Mirza’s 25th doubles title on the WTA tour. The top seeds won their first tournament in Indian Wells last month when they got the better of the same Russian team.
Makarova and Vesnina were off to a great start leading 5-2 in the opening set. Mirza and Hingis saved a set point at 3-5 before winning eight games in a row to take firm control of the match.
There was no looking back for the No. 1 seeds as they wrapped up the second set and the match droppng just one game.
Mirza was visibly excited after back to back wins on the American hard courts. "We just tried to keep telling each other to enjoy the struggle. Last week everything came very, very easily to us - we didn't lose more than four games in a set. Over here we were down, and we were panicking. It was like, 'Oh my God, we're not playing well.' We just weren't used to that," Mirza said.
Hingis credited Sania Mirza’s father, Imran Mirza who provided some tips to the duo during the final.
"Today the coaching really turned it around - your dad came on court," Hingis said to Sania.
"The most important thing is that we never stopped believing we're a great team. They played a great set to get us to that position, 5-2 down. Then we just tried to stay in there and get our chances. We just built on every point, which is what we did well last week too," Hingis said.
Mirza is just 145 points away from clinching the top spot in doubles rankings.