Friday, January 22, 2016

Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza extend winning steak to 31 at Australian Open




Martina Hingis Facebook Fanclub


MELBOURNE, Australia - Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, the No.1 doubles team and co-World No.1s, extended their streak to 31 consecutive wins by defeating the Colombian-Brazilian team of Mariana Duque-Mariño and Teliana Pereira and advancing into the second round.

It was a straightforward win for Hingis and Mirza, who are going for their third straight Grand Slam at the Australian Open.

The pair dashed ahead in the scoreboard by claiming early breaks in both sets, leaving the South Americans always playing catch-up to stay in the match. They struck 30 winners while Duque-Marino and Pereira served five double faults and had 17 unforced errors to their name. The No.1 seeds never felt like they were in danger and comfortably closed out the match at 6-2, 6-3.

The Indo-Swiss duo has bagged 11 titles so far in their very successful partnership, and with each win they inch closer to Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova's 1990 record of 44 wins in a row.

Also in action on Day 4, a pair of French rising stars, No.3 seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic, defeated the Argentine-Spanish duo of María Irigoyen and María-Teresa Torró-Flor, 6-3 6-2. The Frenchwomen teamed up at the beginning of the year with an eye on a possible spot in the Olympics in Rio. The pair reached the finals in Sydney before falling short to Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza in a third set tiebreak.

Elsewhere, No.6 seeded American veterans Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears scored their first win of the year over Sara Errani and María José Martínez Sánchez, beating the Italian-Spanish team 6-2, 6-3.

No comments: