Top seeds Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis survived a scare to win their 29th straight match together, going on the longest winning streak in women’s doubles since 1994 to enter the Sydney International final on Thursday.
The Indo-Swiss duo won 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 against Romanian Raluca Olaru and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan on Court 1 to enter the final of the Sydney International.
They eclipsed the record set by Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva, who won 28 consecutive matches in 1994.
Equalling the record for the most wins on Wednesday, the Indo-Swiss combination overcame the Chinese pair of Chen Liang and Shuai Peng 6-2, 6-3 to enter the semi-finals.
They are eyeing their second win of the year together after winning the Brisbane International last week. They claimed nine titles last year en route to being the top ranked women’s doubles team, the highlight being wins at Wimbledon and US Open.
On Thursday, the top pair, dubbed “SanTina” by their fans, lost the first set 4-6 and were down 1-2 in the second set when rain intervened. That helped them get back their rhythm as they fought back to overturn the deficit and claim the second set 6-3 and utilised their experience to claim the decider narrowly 10-8.
The win was viewed by the ecstatic pair as an ideal preparation for their Australian Open ambitions, starting next week, which will be their third straight Grand Slam triumph should they win it.
“It’s good to have a tough test like this, going into a Grand Slam. We don’t always play super tennis but we come out, find a solution and now we’re the best doubles pair in the world,” Hingis said after the match.
“It seems like a long time since we lost!. One of us helps each other out all the time. Even when we want to break a racquet, we have to shake it off,” Sania said.
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