Black, Mirza win China Open

LOOK, MA IS A WINNER . . . Zimbabwean tennis star Cara Black (left) is joined on the court by her son Lachlan (centre) as she poses with the winners’ trophy alongside her Indian partner Sania Mirza after winning the women’s doubles final at the China Open tournament in Beijing, China, on Saturday. — AFP

BEIJING. — Zimbabwe women’s tennis icon Cara Black and her Indian partner Sania Mirza recorded their second straight doubles title together by winning the China Open crown here on Saturday.
The eighth-seeded duo swept aside the Russian-Spanish combo of Vera Dushevina and Arantxa Parra-Santonja 6-2, 6-2 in the title clash to sign off the 2013 season in style.

The match lasted one hour and six minutes. The Indo-Zimbabwean combination won their ninth match on the trot, in the process of winning this time around, after winning the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last week. This was Mirza’s 19th WTA doubles title. The victory also helped the Indian pocket her fifth WTA title of the season.

“#titlenumber19 #beijing #thatshowweroll #champions no better way of finishing the year,” an ecstatic Mirza tweeted after the match.
“That’s how we roll 😉 thank u to each one of u for the love and wishes..so happy to finish the year on such a high :).”

As a result of their title victory, Mirza and Black received 1000 WTA ranking points along with US$291 000 as the cash prize.
Earlier, the duo booked its final berth with an upset victory over top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy, winning 6-4, 6-4.
Black and Mirza started their China Open campaign with a 6-3, 6-3 win over Kimiko Date-Krumm and Chanelle Scheepers.

They then brushed aside Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Lucie Safarova 6-3, 6-2 in the pre-quarter-finals.
Black and Mirza, playing only their second tournament together, then stunned top seeds Vinci and Errani of Italy in the semi-finals.
Last Saturday, the pair clinched their first title together after teaming up for the first time at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. Mirza and Zimbabwe’s comeback mom Black, who are on a nine-match winning streak, having won in Tokyo last week, are quite the talk of the Tour with their attacking brand of tennis.

The 26-year-old Hyderabadi, who played with American Bethanie Mattek Sands for most of the season, before the duo had to part ways because of the American’s injury issues, and Black, who played with Aussie Anastasia Rodionova at the start of the year before trying her fortunes with Kiwi Marina Erkovic, came together two weeks ago and haven’t put a foot wrong since. — AFP.