ROME, Italy - Tuesday's biggest doubles match at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia saw No.5 seeds Cara Black and Sania Mirza barely escape Martina Hingis and Sabine Lisicki's upset bid.
Black, a two-time Rome doubles winner, and Mirza are second on the Road To Singapore leaderboard, with a season that has seen them win their third WTA doubles title in Oeiras and reach the final at Indian Wells and Stuttgart. Hingis, a former singles and doubles champion here, and Lisicki earned most of the points that have put them in 10th place on the leaderboard by capturing Miami, where they defeated Black and Mirza in straight sets in the semifinals.
The second encounter between them was tight all the way through, and in fact both teams finished with 59 points. But down 8-7 in the match tie-break, Black and Mirza won three straight points to pull out the 6-4, 2-6, 10-8 triumph. They are no strangers to success in match tie-breaks, as they are now 11-3 in them. Also now 16-4 as a combination this season, they are set to face Daniela Hantuchova and Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the second round.
Winning their first round match in a much more one-sided fashion were Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond. The recently reunited duo, whose nine WTA titles together include the 2011 US Open and WTA Championships, were 6-2 6-2 victors over Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan in 56 minutes. They have each won this title before with other partners.
Jelena Jankovic and Alisa Kleybanova rallied from a 5-3 first set deficit and a 4-2 second set deficit in their 7-5, 6-4 win over Svetlana Kuznetsova and Samantha Stosur. Interestingly enough, Jankovic plays Kuznetsova in the second round of singles on Wednesday.
Also advancing were Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova, who currently stand eighth on the Road To Singapore leaderboard and next take on top-seeded Hsieh Su-Wei and Peng Shuai.
wtatennis.com
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