Nasheman

India's largest selling Urdu weekly, now also in English

You are here: Home / Archives for Tennis

Mirza-Hingis Win 25th doubles match in a row

by

AP

AP

Brisbane: World No.1 women’s doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won their 25th match in a row, beating Andreja Klepac and Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3, 7-5, at the Brisbane International on Friday.

The top seeds at the Premier-level tournament faced some resistance from the No.4 seeds, who jumped out to an early 2-0 lead and, after dropping the first set, were a game away from winning the second set up 5-4.

But the Indo-Swiss pair did all the right things at all the right times and closed out the match smartly.

“I think we’re off to a great start in the new season,” Hingis said after the match.

“We never really felt like we finished in 2015 – I played the Indian league and Sania played IPTL, so we still kind of kept our routine. We’re really happy to have the possibility to be in another final, and win another title.”

Hingis and Mirza’s 25-match winning streak, which has brought them five titles in a row at the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, is the longest winning streak since Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci’s 25 in a row in 2012.

“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,” Mirza commented.

“We’re just taking it one match at a time, staying positive, and picking up from where we left off.”

The doubles team of Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva rattled off 28 victories in a row way back to the 1994 season.

Mirza-Hingis won nine titles together last year including the Wimbledon and the US Open and ended the season as the top ranked team in the world.

(IANS)

Bopanna-Mergea topple Bryan brothers at ATP Tour Finals

by

Rohan Bopanna Florin Mergea

London: Making their debut as a team at the prestigious $7 million ATP World Tour Finals, the Indo-Romanian tennis combine of Rohan Bopanna and Florin Mergea came out with a brilliant performance to drub top seeds and defending champions Bob and Mike Bryan in straight sets in their men’s doubles opening rubber of Group Ashe/Smith.

The eighth seeded pairing took exactly an hour to defeat the legendary American pair 6-4, 6-3 in the round robin encounter at The O2 Arena here on Sunday night. This was the winning pair’s second win in four meetings over the Bryan brothers and their first on a hard court.

The last time they beat the Bryans was in the quarter-finals of Wimbledon earlier this year, where they earned a four-set triumph.

A series of breaks saw the two pairs go neck-and-neck in the opening set until Bopanna held on in the 10th game to take the set 6-4. Both pairs received five breakpoints each but Bopanna and Mergea converted three to the two of the Bryans.

The second set was more or less an easy task for the eighth seeds as the combination broke early and led 2-0. The Indo-Romanian pair, from there on, did not look back and piled on more pressure on their opponents.

A couple of unforced errors from the American duo and two vital break points helped Bopanna-Mergea seal a memorable win.

Bopanna and Mergea are currently topping the four-team group and will next face British-Australian fourth seeds Jamie Murray and John Peers, who defeated Italian fifth seeds Simone Bolelli and Fabio Fognini 7-6(5), 3-6, 11-9, on Tuesday.

The tournament is a year-ending event where only the top-8 players/pairs can take part. It is the most prestigious event in the tennis calendar after the four Grand Slam tourneys.

(Agencies)

Sania-Martina clinch WTA Finals crown

by

martina-sania

Singapore: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis lifted their ninth title together this year beating the Spanish pair of Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro to clinch the WTA Finals women’s doubles trophy here on Sunday.

Sania and Martina, the top seeds, prevailed 6-0, 6-3 over their eight-seeded rivals in a lopsided summit clash, which lasted little over an hour.

Before this, Sania and Martina had won eight titles (Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan and Beijing) and finished runner-up just once (Rome – falling to WTA Rising Stars Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic).

The Indo-Swiss pairing dropped serve only once through the match and broke their opponents five times to wrap up a comprehensive victory.

Sania and Martina are now unbeaten in 22 matches, stretching back six tournaments. In fact, since their last defeat — to Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan in Cincinnati — they have dropped just two sets.

Muguruza and Suarez Navarro — late replacements in the draw after Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova’s withdrawal — were completely outplayed in the match.

“I feel like it was a perfect day. Sania just played out of her mind – she was everywhere today, getting everything back and playing incredible tennis,” Hingis said.

This triumph is especially huge for Martina as the trophy was her 50th WTA doubles title, a milestone only 15 players have reached (Martina Navratilova, Rosie Casals, Pam Shriver, Billie Jean King, Natasha Zvereva, Lisa Raymond, Jana Novotna, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Gigi Fernandez, Helena Sukova, Larisa Neiland, Cara Black, Rennae Stubbs, Wendy Turnbull and Liezel Huber).

Sania and Martina ended the year as the world number one women’s doubles team and the Indian tennis ace said a win in the WTA Finals is the perfect way to wrap off the year. “To play in tournaments like this is what we’ve fought all our lives for and it’s incredible to play in front of a packed stadium,” said Sania.

“We feel very fortunate. We’ve done some amazing things together and it’s the perfect way to end the year for us,” she added.

(PTI)

Sania-Martina reach China Open semis

by

AP

AP

Beijing: The Indo-Swiss tennis combine of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis were tested but eventually made their way through to enter the women’s doubles semifinals of the $5.7 million China Open here on Thursday.

The top seeds took an hour and 20 minutes to beat the German-Czech pairing of Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova 7-6(5), 6-4 at the Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Center, which was built for the 2008 Olympic Games.

The first set was an extremely close contest as both pairs earned five breakpoint chances and converted twice. This led to the tie-breaker where Sania and Martina proved a tad better to clinch it 7-5.

Julia and Karolina fought well again in the second set to break the top seeds but Sania and Martina came back strong to break the European combine twice and take home the set and match.

Overall, the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions won 73 of the 131 points played in the match.

Sania has reached the final of this event in the last three editions, winning the 2013 title with Zimbabwean Cara Black.

(IANS)

Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis bag Wuhan Open title

by

mirza-hingis

Wuhan: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis continued their winning streak as they clinched the Wuhan Open title on Saturday.

The Indo-Swiss pair defeated Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu in straight sets (6-2, 6-3) to clinch their seventh title of this season.

This is the seventh title that the Sania-Martina combination has won this year. The top seeded pair had also won the Wimbledon and the US Open titles earlier in 2015. In the last month, the duo had clinched Guangzhou Open title.

(Agencies)

Sania-Martina in doubles semis of Wuhan Open

by

mirza-hingisWuhan: Leading women’s doubles pair Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis entered the semi-finals of the Wuhan Open tennis tournament here on Thursday.

The top seed duo defeated fifth seeded American pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears 6-2, 6-2 in the last eight stage in only 58 minutes.

Sania and Hingis earlier beat Polish-Australian pair of Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Anastasia Rodionova 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.

The Indo-Swiss pair recently won the Guangzhou Open. They have won an impressive six titles together including triumphs at Wimbledon and US Open.

(IANS)

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis win Guangzhou Open title

by

The dominating duo of Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis beat Chinese pair of Shilin Xu-Xiaodi You 6-3, 6-1 to win Guangzhou Open title on Saturday.

AP

AP

New Delhi: The dominating duo of Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis beat Chinese pair of Shilin Xu-Xiaodi You 6-3, 6-1 to win Guangzhou Open title on Saturday.

This is their 6th title of the year. The pair has won two Grand Slams this year (Wimbledon and US Open). The No. 1 ranked pair in the world will want to finish the year with the WTA Finals title and keep their success rolling.

Sania posted a photo of herself and Hingis on Twitter.

Djokovic wins US Open singles crown, takes third Major of year

by

Novak Djokovic

New York: Serbian star Novak Djokovic vanquished Roger Federer in a four-set battle to clinch the men’s singles title at the US Open here.

The top seeded Djokovic survived a strong fightback from the Swiss veteran to carve out a 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 victory in three hours and 20 minutes at Flushing Meadows on Sunday evening.

Djokovic thus claimed the 10th Glam Slam title of his career. The 28-year-old from Serbia took home his second US Open crown. He had won his first US Open title in 2011.

This was the third Glam Slam title of the season for Djokovic. The Serbian ace had clinched the Australian Open and Wimbledon earlier this year.

This was the second consecutive time this year that Federer has been denied an 18th Grand Slam title by Djokovic. He had been ousted by the Serb in the Wimbledon final in July as well.

In a battle of the top two seeds at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, the spirited Federer was egged on by the crowd as the 34-year-old went for his 18th major title.

The match was delayed by three hours due to rain. When the contest finally started, both Federer and Djokovic took time to find their rhythm and footing due to the slippery conditions.

Djokovic suffered a fall during the opening set, badly scraping his arm and leg. But when the world number one regained his composure, he quickly asserted his dominance, breaking Federer’s serve six times and saving 19 of 23 break points to battle his way to his 27th win in 28 Grand Slam matches this year.

Federer, who was broken just twice during his run to the final, was in fine form, not having lost a set since his loos in the Wimbledon final.

But he was made made to struggle right from the start as Djokovic forced three break points in the opening game.

Federer managed to hold serve on that occasion, but could not fight off another three break chances on his next service game as Djokovic made the breakthrough to take a 2-1 lead.

The second seed broke back immediately, but Djokovic broke Federer’s serve in the seventh game as well and then held serve to clinch the set after 41 minutes.

With the 23,000-strong crowd firmly behind him, Federer fought back in the second set. The highlight of the set was a hard-fought 15-minute battle for the 10th game which Djokovic held to draw level at 5-5.

But Federer eventually broke Djokovic with a powerful crosscourt winner to take the set and draw level at 2-2.

The Swiss star deployed the net-rushing return that he has developed this season, which has been called SABR or Sneak Attack By Roger. But it had very little effect on Djokovic who kept finding a way past, or over, Federer.

Djokovic seemed to be struggling in the early stages of the third set, but he saved two break points at 4-4 before forcing a break in the next game to take control of the set thanks to a backhand error by Federer.

The top seed kept up the momentum, opening the fourth set by breaking his opponent’s serve. He claimed another break in the seventh game as well to force a commanding 5-2 lead.

But Federer was determined not to go down without a fight. The 17-time Grand Slam winner brought the crowd to their feet by winning two consecutive games.

But Djokovic managed to stand firm, seeing off the break points as Federer floated the ball long on championship point.

(IANS)

Sania-Martina wins US Open women’s doubles title

by

sania-mirza-martina-hingis

New York: Women’s doubles top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis defeated fourth seeded Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-3 here on Sunday to claim the US Open title.

The Indo-Swiss pair took only 69 minutes to conquer the Australian-Kazakh pair at the Arthur Ashe stadium.

It was Sania and Martina’s second women’s doubles Grand Slam title together after winning the Wimbledon earlier this year and they played with supreme confidence to win the tournament without dropping a set. It was Sania’s fifth success at the Majors (two women’s doubles and three mixed doubles crowns).

Sania’s partnership with Martina has helped her become the first Indian women’s player to be ranked World No. 1 in the doubles rankings.

Sunday’s final was Sania’s first in the category here at US Open. She won the mixed doubles title last year with Brazilian Bruno Soares here.

For Martina, the tournament turned out to be a memorable won as she lifted her second trophy at the Flushing Meadows this year on Sunday, after bagging the mixed doubles crown on Friday with another Indian, Leander Paes. It was also her fifth Grand Slam title this year, and 20th of her career across all three disciplines (five singles, 11 doubles and four mixed doubles).

The Swiss now just the third active player to have 20 major trophies (after Serena Willams’ 36 and Venus Williams’ 22).

On Sunday, the top seeds quickly jumped to a 3-1 lead breaking the second service game of their opponents.

But the fourth seeds immediately broke Sania’s serve to make it 2-3.

Sania-Martina though remained undeterred to bring about the third and fourth successive service breaks to extend their advantage to 5-2.

Sania then served out the first set at 6-3 in only 31 minutes. They hit 16 winners – four more than their opponents – to claim the first set, converting three of the eight break points. Dellacqua-Shvedova could only break their opponents once.

The reigning Wimbledon champions continued their dominant return of serves in the second set and broke their opponents to take an early 2-0 lead.

As the match went on, the top seeds grew more confident and started unleashing terrific ground strokes, both cross court and down the line, to march towards victory.

But they were made to wait for the win as Dellacqua-Shvedova converted their second break point to put up a resistance and reduce the margin to 3-5.

But that only delayed the inevitable as Martina put away a volley at the net to seal the fate of the match, with the pair clinching 62 of the total 108 points played.

Sania and Martina entered the title round easing past Italian 11th seeds Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-1. Dellacqua-Shvedova defeated unseeded German-American pair of Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Coco Vandeweghe 6-7 (3), 7-5, 7-5 to reach the final.

“It has been a great year for us,” Sania said after the win.

“To win Wimbledon was a great year. Then to come back and back it up to win the US Open, we feel like we’re a really solid team. And we came through again today.”

“From the start, we hit it off,” Martina said.

“Our games work well together.”

(IANS)

Leander Paes clinches 17th Grand Slam with US Open mixed doubles title

by

Paes now has nine mixed doubles titles, one more than Mahesh Bhupati

Martina Hingis and Leander Paes kiss the trophy after winning the mixed doubles title at the 2015 US Open. Photo Courtesy: US Open website

Martina Hingis and Leander Paes kiss the trophy after winning the mixed doubles title at the 2015 US Open. Photo Courtesy: US Open website

New York: Indian tennis ace Leander Paes clinched his 17th Grand Slam crown by winning the US Open mixed doubles title with Swiss partner Martina Hingis here.

The fourth seeded Indo-Swiss pair defeated unseeded Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sam Querrey 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 in a tricky final, which lasted for one hour and seventeen minutes on Friday.

Paes and Hingis broke their opponent at love to take a 2-1 lead in the opening set as the Swiss hit a forehand passing shot to secure the break. That bit of momentum was all they needed as Paes easily closed the set out at 5-4 when Hingis hit a volley winner.

A lone break of serve also decided the second set, as Mattek-Sands hit two straight winners to break Hingis’ serve as the Americans led 3-1. Hingis saved three set points on her serve at 2-5, but Querrey easily held in the next game to send the contest into a deciding super tiebreak.

The unseeded Americans were cruising as they created a 4-1 cushion when they won both points on Hingis’ serve to grab the first mini-break. But the Indo-Swiss pair took the mini-break back on Mattek-Sands’ serve at the next opportunity.

The crucial point of the match came at 7-7, when Paes blocked Querrey’s serve for a clean passing-shot winner. He then won both points on his serve to close out the match, hitting an overhead winner on their first championship point.

42-year-old Paes now has nine mixed doubles title, surpassing compatriot and former doubles partner Mahesh Bhupathi, who has eight. Paes has eight men’s doubles titles.

It was the third mixed doubles crown of the year for Paes and Hingis, who defeated Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic in the Australian Open final and beat Alexander Peya and Timea Babos in the Wimbledon title match.

They are the first team since 1969 and second in the Open Era to capture three of four Majors in a calendar year.

“Hingis said something that was quite interesting. She said you have to have the guts to go after something, and I don’t believe that I personally have the technique or the caliber of talent that Hingis has,” Paes told the US Open official website after the match.

“One thing I do have is the guts. I will go for it. My whole life is about perseverance, just trying to find a way to succeed. I know if I can keep Hingis happy, if I can keep her relaxed, the tennis I don’t even have to worry about. This young girl is phenomenal on the tennis court and off of it. We actually have our best times when we are on the practice court. I learn a lot from her,” the 1996 Olympic bronze medallist added.

Hingis, 34, too heaped praise on her partner Paes.

“I mean, it’s awesome. Once we started the year and, you know, to walk away with three Grand Slam titles this season. So it’s incredible. I mean, I’m so lucky and fortunate to have Leander as a partner on my side. I know he has my back all day long,” Hingis said.

“I have never had a partner as thoughtful of me, backing me up, as Paes. It’s amazing the understanding we have for the game, like for each other, how we cover the court at the net, baseline, whatever works. Even one thing doesn’t work we come with plan B or C like it was today,” the Swiss veteran added.

Hingis also has a chance to add another in the women’s doubles final with India’s Sania Mirza on Sunday.

(IANS)

KNOW US

GET INVOLVED

PROMOTE

Archives