Martina Hingis Official Facebook
BRISBANE, Australia - Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza won their 10th WTA doubles title together in Brisbane and have now won 26 matches in a row - the longest doubles winning streak in 22 years.
Saturday's final was a tight affair early on, as Hingis and Mirza's opponents in the final, Angelique Kerber and Andrea Petkovic, rebounded from a 2-0 deficit with four games of their own to build a 4-2 lead. But the No.1-seeded Swiss-Indian combo flipped the script completely from there, rattling off 11 of the last 13 games of the match to get by the German wildcard pairing in straight sets, 7-5, 6-1.
"They're obviously very good players, so we knew we had to come out and play our best," Mirza said. "We let the lead go a little bit after 2-0, and we were both trying to find our form again on the court. It was big we broke on the deuce point at 6-5, and after that the tide really changed in our favor."
Though she came out on the losing end, Kerber still made history - she's the first player in the tournament's history to reach both the singles and doubles finals. She was runner-up in singles too.
"It wasn't my night tonight. I lost two finals," she said at the trophy ceremony. "But it was still a great week, and congratulations to Sania and Martina - you are the best, good luck in Melbourne!"
And so, Hingis and Mirza's winning streak lives on - at 26 matches in a row it's the longest doubles winning streak since Gigi Fernández and Natasha Zvereva won 28 matches in a row together in 1994.
Hingis and Mirza also hit double digit WTA doubles titles together - Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston,Wimbledon, US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and WTA Finals in 2015, and now Brisbane.
Even more impressive? Hingis and Mirza are actually 10-1 in WTA doubles finals together.
They're playing again this week coming up, at the Apia International Sydney - again as top seeds.
"Every match at the beginning of the season is a good match, just trying to get that confidence going," Hingis said. "It's great we already have this Brisbane title in our pockets, and we're really looking forward to Sydney. We'll get a couple days off before we play and then we will start again.
"I always have such great support in Australia so I really look forward to the next tournaments."
Another year, another title. Different partner same result.
Congrats Martina & Sania there are not enough superlatives at this point.
Loved Petkovic's comment in her runner's up speech "congratulations, but please stop winning because it's starting to get annoying" :D.
Also the bit about being glad Sania and Martina are not playing in the Olympic games together and "unless you plan on changing your citizenship, if you are please let us all know ahead of time". :D
Great girls, great speech. Fantastic tournament.
All the best in Sydney ladies :).
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