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Five-time champions hold their nerve to claim victory by nine runs in the final over at Chandigarh
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When Sania Mirza won the Dubai Duty Free Tennis doubles title
The reward was a check for $69,039 and 470 points
Indian tennis icon Sania Mirza. — Supplied photo
After a trailblazing singles career, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza successfully crossed over to doubles where she would enjoy some of the biggest wins of her outstanding career.
One of them came at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships in 2013 when she teamed up with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands, a future Olympic gold medallist, to claim her first success in the Emirate.
The defending doubles champions Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond switched partners with Huber teaming up with Hsieh Su-wei and Raymond choosing to play with Samantha Stosur.
Perhaps it was not a great idea as Huber and her new partner were beaten in the first round by Mirza and Mattek-Sands. Raymond would suffer a similar fate when she and Stosur lost to Cara Black and Anastasia Rodionova in the quarterfinals.
Mirza and Mattek-Sands would forge a good understanding on the court and comfortably progress to the finals where they would meet second seeds Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik.
Wearing a bright yellow peak cap to shut out the sun, Mirza was all power from the back of the court and with Mattek-Sands in control of the net the pair would prevail in three well-contested sets.
Mirza and Sands won the first rather comfortably at 6-4 but were overwhelmed 6-2 in the second as Petrova and Srebotnik found another level of play.
The decider was touch and go before Mirza and Mattek-Sands turned on the heat in the super tiebreak to win the set, and match 10-7.
The reward was a check for $69,039 and 470 points.
“When you play a final, it's not about the tennis,” said Mirza.
“It’s about nerve and trying to keep positive at all times. In finals, you don't always get to see the best tennis, it's always the team that is gutsier than the other that comes out on top."
Earlier this week Mirza retired from professional tennis having won a total of 42 women’s doubles titles in tandem with the likes of Martina Hingis, Cara Black and Andreja Klepac.
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