Brisbane: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis continued their stupendous run by clinching their 25th victory together to enter the final of the Brisbane International Tennis Tournament here today.
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss duo defeated the Slovak-Russian combination of Andreja Klepac and Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3 7-5 to make the summit clash.
Sania and Hingis will next be up against winner of the other semifinal between the Spanish team of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja and the German wildcard pairing of Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic.
Sania and Hingis, currently the world’s No.1 team, breezed past their rivals in the opening set before facing slight resistance in the second.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve lost, but it’s never easy to start a new season, especially when you’re coming off such a great season. Everyone’s gunning for us – we’re the hunted,” Sania said.
“We’re just taking it one match at a time, stay positive, and pick up from where we left off.”
Sania and Hingis won five titles last season and their unbeaten streak is the longest since Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci’s 25 in a row in 2012.
The Italians had also won five titles in a row, at Barcelona, Madrid, Rome, the French Open and ‘s-Hertogenbosch before their run came to an end in the Wimbledon.
“I think we’re off to a great start in the new season. We never really felt like we finished in 2015 – I played the Indian league and Sania played IPTL, so we still kept our routine,” Hingis said.
“We’re really happy to have the possibility to be in another final here, and win another title,” she added.
The last doubles team to win more than 25 matches in a row was Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva who notched up 28 victories in a row way back in 1994.
PTI