Back With Black: Sania Wins Gold At the Doubles WTA Finals
Back With Black: Sania Wins Gold At the Doubles WTA Finals
It all began with a nervy match between Sania-Cara and Kveta-Katarina in the semi finals that paved the way for the final WTA match where the Indo-Zimbabwean pair won the game and the gold.
India's Sania Mirza and Zimbabwean Cara Black saved 3 match points in the Super tie break against Katarina Srebotnik and Kveta Peschke to persevere in the summit clash of the WTA finals. The third seeded pair of Sania-Cara had been trailing at 6-9 yet they displayed awesome resilience to win 5 straight points in the Super tie breaker against the Czech-Slovenian pair.
Playing at the year end finals for the first time in a combination for the last time, Sania and Cara won the amazing semifinal in 2 hours and one minute. Next on the anvil was the finals match with Chinese Taipei's Su-Wei and China's Shuai Peng.
Hsieh and Peng had scored an easy victory over Alla Kudayavtseva and Anastasia Rodionova in the other semifinal. Sania and Cara may have lost earlier in the season to Hsieh and Peng, but this time they proved triumphant. The Indo-Zimbabwean combination also gained a a much higher percentage of points on their serve than Hsieh and Peng. The latter duo's double faults at important junctures and points of the match were not very helpful for them.
It was through a thrilling play that Sania and Cara won the prestigious season ending WTA final. The third seeded pair who were playing their last tournament together took 60 minutes to beat second seeded Hsieh and Peng. The venue of the WTA finals this year was the Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Sania and her teammate Cara fought every step of the way, dominating in the first set through a victory in three of the four set points as they gave away nothing to Hsieh and Peng who held on to their serve in one game alone. The third seeded pair also attained the perfect second set and breaking the fortunes of the opponents as many as 3 out of 5 times. To watch the pair in action was stunning. India's Sania Mirza has done the country proud yet again with her powerful strokes and thrilling win.
With this victory comes the moment when the partnership between Cara and Sania meets its conclusion. The pair had announced following their US open play that this would be their last season together. Tennis is a sport which is rapidly growing in India. This game has now started gaining as much popularity as cricket. For many, cricket remains a passion but new contenders such as tennis and football are not far behind.
It has been equally thrilling to see the rise of Indian sportswomen and men in the arena as sports is an extremely competitive and challenging field. Sania Mirza's unbroken records and amazing wins are a source of pride to the nation.
