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Sania-Martina enter US Open quarters

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Martina Hingis of Switzerland, left, and partner Sania Mirza, celebrate after winning their doubles match during the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday | AP

Martina Hingis of Switzerland, left, and partner Sania Mirza, celebrate after winning their doubles match during the fourth round of the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Sunday | AP

New York: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis eased into the women’s doubles quarterfinals at the US Open with a comfortable straight sets victory over Michaella Krajicek and Barbora Strycova here.

The top seeded Indo-Swiss combination produced a dominant performance to get the better of their 13th seeded opponents 6-3, 6-0 in 59 minutes.

Sania and Hingis were hardly stretched during the contest as they managed to hold their serve all through. They were off to a good start, breaking Krajicek and Strycova once in the first set.

They fired 14 winners in the opening set as against eight by their Dutch-Czech opponents.

Sania and Martina upped the ante in the second set, earning six break points, three of which they converted.

Krajicek and Strycova were clearly out of their depths, producing nine unforced errors as the Indo-Swiss duo wrapped up the second set in 26 minutes.

The top seeds will face Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching of Chinese Taipei in the last eight stage.

The Chinese Taipei pair, who are seeded ninth, prevailed in a tough contest with the unseeded Romanian duo of Irina-Camelia Begu and Raluca Olaru.

The ninth seeds conceeded the first set before fighting back to win 5-7, 6-1, 7-6 (4).

(IANS)

Paes, Sania lose in US Open doubles

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Paes-Sania

New Delhi: The Indians had a disappointing outing in the US Open with both Leander Paes and Sania Mirza losing their doubles matches with their respective partners here.

Mixed doubles defending champions Sania and Bruno Soares lost 3-6, 3-6 to Czech Republic’s Andrea Hlavackova-Lukasz Kubot in a first round contest lasting 65 minutes.

Earlier in the day yesterday, Leander Paes and Fernando Verdasco lost their second round match 5-7, 6-4, 3-6 to unseeded American giant-killing pair of Steve Johnson and Sam Querrey.

Paes and his Spanish partner Verdasco got the better of Germans Florian Mayer and Frank Moder 6-2 6-3 in the opening round of the men’s doubles competition.

In women’s doubles, the top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair of Sania and Martina Hingis is scheduled to take on Swiss Timea Bacsinszky and her Taipei partner Chia-Jung Chuang in the second round.

(Agencies)

Sania gets Khel Ratna, Arjuna awards for 12 others

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Sania-Mirza

New Delhi: Tennis star Sania Mirza received the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, the country’s highest sporting honour on Saturday, while 12 others, including ace shooter Jitu Rai and hockey goalkeeper P.R. Sreejesh were conferred with the Arjuna award.

This year’s ceremony had its fair share of controversy as well since a division bench of the Delhi High Court on Saturday stayed a single-judge order directing the Centre to give the prestigious Dronacharya award to former chief national wrestling coach Vinod Kumar.

The Dronacharya award — conferred on eminent coaches — went to Anoop Kumar Dahiya (wrestling), Harbans Singh (athletics), Swatantar Raj Singh (boxing), Nihar Ameen (swimming) and Naval Singh (para-athletics).

In a glittering function at the Rashtrapati Bhawan, President Pranab Mukherjee also handed out Arjuna awards to wrestlers Bajrang Singh, men’s singles shuttler Kidambi Srikanth, archer Sandeep Kumar, 2014 Commonwealth Games medal winning gymnast Dipa Karmakar, kabaddi players Manjeet Chillar and Abhilasha Shashikant Mhatre, roller skater Anup Kumar Yama, weightlifter Sivalingam Sathish Kumar, wushu athlete Y. Sanathoi Devi and para-swimmer Sharath M. Gaekwad.

Boxer Mandeep Jangra, women’s 400 metre runner M.R. Poovamma, female wrestler Babita Kumari, cricketer Rohit Sharma and rower Swarn Singh Virk were also named for the Arjuna award, but could not attend the function.

Jangra, Poovamma, Babita and Sharma are currently participating in international competitions abroad while Virk, who won gold at the Asian Rowing Championship in 2013, is in hospital with an injury.

They will receive their awards at a later date from sports minister Sarbananda Sonowal.

Former India volleyball captain T.P.P. Nair, Davis Cup captain S.P. Misra and former hockey goalkeeper Romeo James bagged the Dhyan Chand award.

Meanwhile, the Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award went to Arunima Sinha and Jot Singh (both land adventure), Wing Commander Paramvir Singh (water adventure), Lt. Colonel (retd.) Satyendra Verma (air adventure) and Colonel (Retd.) Satish Chander Sharma (lifetime achievement).

Punjabi University, Patiala, was conferred the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Trophy.

The Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskarar, intended to promote involvement of corporates and institutional boards in sports, went to Directorate General of Military Training, Haryana Police, Sports Coaching Foundation (Hyderabad) and Coal India Limited.

Sania, who became the first Indian woman to achieve the World No.1 spot in doubles, recently clinched the Wimbledon crown along with Swiss star Martina Hingis. She has four Grand Slam titles in her kitty.

The Hyderabadi is only the second tennis player after Leander Paes to be named for the top sports award. Paes received the honour in 1996 after clinching the bronze medal at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996.

She had also received the Arjuna award in 2004 and was awarded the Padma Shri — the country’s fourth highest civilian honour — in 2006.

Among those who received the Arjuna awards, goalkeeper Sreejesh played a key role in India winning the Asian Games hockey gold medal and the Commonwealth Games (CWG) silver in 2014.

Rohit has scored 4312 runs in One-Day International (ODI) cricket. He holds the record of most number of runs (264) in an ODI. The right-handed batsman also played a key role in India’s performance at the 2015 World Cup where the team reached the semi-finals.

Pistol shooter Rai emerged champion at last year’s CWG and backed it up with another gold medal at the 2014 Asian Games. He is also a bronze medallist at last year’s World Championships.

Athlete Poovamma was part of the team that won the gold medals in the 4X400 metres relay race at the Asian Games as well as the Asian Athletics Championships. She won the bronze medal in the 400 metres race at the Asian Games 2014.

Kabaddi players Chillar and Abhilasha were part of the Asian Games gold medal winning men’s and women’s teams.

Wrestler Bajrang won the silver medal in the 60kg category at the 2013 World Championships. The promising young grappler also bagged silver medals at last year’s Asian Games and CWG.

Women’s World Wrestling Championships bronze medallist Babita also won a gold in the 55kg class at the 2014 CWG.

Woman gymnast Dipa got bronze medals in the CWG 2014 as well as at the Asian Championships.

Sathish is an Asian Games champion, while Sanathoi won a bronze medal in the wushu competition at the 2014 Asiad.

(IANS)

Karnataka HC stays Sania Mirza’s Khel Ratna award

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Sania Mirza

New Delhi: The Karnataka high court today put a stay on ​Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award to be conferred to Sania Mirza after Paralympic athlete H N Girisha filed a plea against the same.

H N Girisha, a 2012 London Paralympics silver medallist expressed his displeasure over the way Sania’s name had been recommended by the Union sports ministry-appointed selection panel while over-looking his performances.

The Hassan-born high jumper, has also won bronze at the 2014 Incheon Asian Para Games.

Sania is currently ranked world number one in women’s doubles and created history by becoming the first Indian to win a women’s doubles Grand Slam title alongside Martina Hingis to clinch the Wimbledon trophy earlier this year.

Sania happens to become the second tennis player who has been recommended for this prestigious award. Earlier Leander Paes had been confered the honour way back in 1996 having achieved a bronze medal in the Atlanta Olympics.

(Agencies)

Mirza-Hingis win 2015 Wimbledon women’s doubles title

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Martina-Hingis

London: Sania Mirza combined with former world number one Martina Hingis late Saturday to win a thrilling women’s doubles final in the 2015 edition of the Wimbledon championships.

They beat Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 7-5, BBC reported.

The win marked a first Wimbledon title for Mirza, who is the number one-ranked female doubles player. Hingis is ranked second.

Hingis was Wimbledon singles champion in 1997 and last appeared in a final at the All England Club in 1998, when she won the women’s doubles.

On Saturday, Mirza was making her first appearance alongside Hingis at a major doubles final and the pair combined to play their part in a match that thrilled the Centre Court crowd.

After losing the first set, Hingis and Mirza edged a closely-fought second set in the tie-break and then came back from 5-2 down in the third, winning five successive games to secure the title.

The 34-year-old Hingis also plays in the mixed doubles final on Sunday.

(IANS)

Sania-Martina enter Wimbledon semis

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Photo: Wimbledon

Photo: Wimbledon

Wimbledon: Indo-Swiss tennis pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis came out with a clinical performance to enter the women’s doubles semi-finals of Wimbledon here.

The top seeds needed only an hour and 19 minutes to win 7-5, 6-3 in a quarter-final tie against ninth seeds Australia’s Casey Dellacqua and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova on Court 3 of the All-England Club on Wednesday.

Sania and Martina started off their campaign on an aggressive note, winning 20 of 27 first serve points. But Dellacqua-Shvedova came back strongly by winning a break point. However, that didn’t help their cause as the top seeds were too strong to break their opponents twice that led them to take the first set 7-5.

The second set saw the top seeds play more aggressively for their quest of the semis berth. The pair broke their opponents once and a double fault by Dellacqua-Shvedova made it easy for the Indo-Swiss combine to win the set 6-3 and advance to the last four.

Sania and Martina next face United States duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears for a spot in the final.

(IANS)

Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis cruise to third round at Wimbledon

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Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis were ruthless from the very beginning and dominated the contest throughout, winning 56 of the 81 points played in the match, double faulting only twice and forcing their opponents into six unforced errors.

Sania and Martina will next take on Kimiko Date-Krumm and Francesca Schiavone. Photo: Wimbledon

Sania and Martina will next take on Kimiko Date-Krumm and Francesca Schiavone. Photo: Wimbledon

Wimbledon: The Indo-Swiss pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis cruised to the third round of the women’s doubles event, handing a 6-0, 6-1 thrashing to Japanese-Italian pair of Kimiko Date-Krumm and Francesca Schiavone at the Wimbldon tennis championships here.

The top-seeded duo took just 45 minutes at Court 12 to advance to the next round on Friday.

The Indo-Swiss duo were ruthless from the very beginning and dominated the contest throughout, winning 56 of the 81 points played in the match, double faulting only twice and forcing their opponents into six unforced errors.

“We’re playing really well, so I was confident going into the match,” Hingis said after the match on Friday.

“I’ve known Kimiko and Francesca for a long time and we knew it could be difficult, but we started well and kept our level up for the whole match.”

They defeated unseeded opponents Zarina Diyas of Kazakhstan and Zheng Saisai of China 6-2, 6-2 in the first round on Thursday.

In the third round, Sania-Martina will meet the winning pair in a match between New Zealand-English duo of Marina Erakovic-Heather Watson and Spanish duo of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja.

(IANS)

Sania Mirza officially becomes No.1 in WTA doubles rankings

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Sania_mirza

Charleston: Sania Mirza was elevated to the No.1 spot in the women’s doubles rankings, according to the latest Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) list released on Monday.

Sania leapfrogged to the top spot after winning her third consecutive WTA title – Family Circle Cup – with new partner Martina Hingis here on Sunday.

According to the latest rankings, Sania has 7,660 points to claim the summit spot, closely followed by Italian doubles pair of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, both with 7,640 points.

Sania’s doubles partner Swiss Martina Hingis occupied the fourth spot with 6,465 points.

Zimbabwen Cara Black was at the fifth position with 5,990 points.

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won their third successive doubles title together, securing the Family Circle Cup tennis title on Sunday, enabling the Indian to create history by becoming the first woman from her country to become the World No.1 in the doubles ranking.

The No.1-seeded Swiss-Indian duo beat Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak in straight sets for the title, 6-0, 6-4, missing two match points at 5-3 in the second set but closing it out a game later.

Sania is the first Indian woman to reach No.1 in tennis, in either singles or doubles, and just the fourth Asian woman to do it, after Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, China’s Peng Shuai and Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei.

Sania and Martina are already No.1 on the doubles leaderboard for the season-ending Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) finals to be held in Singapore from October 25 to November 1.

(IANS)

Sania-Martina secure top spot on leaderboard for WTA Finals

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BNP Paribas Open - Day 13

Charleston: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis secured the No.1 position on the doubles leaderboard for the end-of-season tennis championships after defeating Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues and Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova in the quarter-finals of the Family Circle Cup.

The No.1-seeded Hingis and Mirza battled Medina Garrigues and Shvedova for an hour and 41 minutes for a 7-5, 4-6, 13-11 victory, fighting off a match point down 10-9 in the match tie-break and needing six match points of their own to edge the Spanish-Kazakhstani defending champions on Friday.

Their latest win ensured that they will overtake Australian Open champions Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova (currently No.2) and Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina (currently No.1) in the doubles leaderboard, according to the Women’s Tennis Association’s (WTA) website.

The end-of-season WTA Finals will be played in Singapore from October 25 to November 1.

Mirza, currently No.3 in the individual rankings for doubles players, will become the top-ranked player if she and Hingis manage to win the Family Circle Cup.

(IANS)

Mirza-Hingis win Miami Open doubles title

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sania-mirza-martina-hingis

Miami: Sania Mirza claimed her 25th Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) doubles title and second partnering Martina Hingis by winning the Miami Open trophy 7-5 6-1 against the Russian pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina here.

The No.2-seeded Makarova and Vesnina came out strong, storming out to a 5-2 lead, but the No.1-seeded Hingis and Mirza came alive from there, reeling off eight games in a row – even staving off a set point – to surge ahead, 7-5, 3-0. They barely looked back to close out the match on Sunday.

“The most important thing is that we never stopped believing we’re a great team,” Hingis said of the early deficit after winning on Sunday.

“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.”

The Swiss-Indian duo talked about how an on-court coaching visit helped them turn it around.

“Today the coaching really turned it around – your dad came on court,” Hingis said to Mirza.

“We just tried to keep telling each other to enjoy the struggle,” Mirza said. “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.

But it’s good to fight through those matches and believe, and come out now and be like, ‘At 5-3 I was gutsy to hit a big serve,’ or she made a huge move at 5-4, if that makes sense. So it’s good,” Hingis added.

Mirza and Hingis have now won their opening two tournaments they have played together.

Hingis now has 43 WTA doubles titles to her name, which matches the 43 WTA singles titles she’s won in her career. Meanwhile, Mirza took home the milestone 25th WTA doubles title of her career.

The Mirza-Hingis pair will now jump from ninth to third position in the WTA rankings as a result of the victory.

(IANS)

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