Cara, Mirza to cut ties

Collin Matiza Harare Bureau
ZIMBABWEAN female tennis star Cara Black will sever her links with her Indian partner Sania Mirza at the end of this season.
According to reports from India, Black and Mirza will not be playing as doubles partners from next season with the latter partnering Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh, bringing to an end to her rather successful partnership with the Zimbabwean.

Black and Mirza began playing together towards the end of the 2013 season and won a number of titles on the road including back-to-back victories at the Tokyo Open which they clinched in 2013 and successfully defended it in Japan last weekend.

And after retaining the Tokyo Open title this year, Black and Mirza briefly went their separate ways and the Zimbabwean tennis star teamed-up with Caroline Garcia of France during last week’s Wuhan Open in China where they lost in the final to Martina Hingis and Flavia Pennetta on Saturday.

Former World No. 1 Hingis of Switzerland and Italy’s Pennetta combined to win the first title of their partnership, winning the $2,4 million Wuhan Open on Saturday in a thrilling final over Black and Garcia.

According to reports from China, Hingis and Pennetta let go off four matchpoints in the second set, then saved two matchpoints in the match tie-breaker before finally emerging 6-4, 5-7, 12-10 winners over the scratch pairing of Black/Garcia.

Hingis and Pennetta were playing only their fifth tournament together as a team – they were runners-up at the recent US Open and the Eastbourne Championships in June.

With the win, the duo move closer to one of the final berths at the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore, where the top eight teams of the season qualify.

Hingis and Pennetta will climb to ninth place in the race to Singapore.

Black’s regular partner on the circuit Mirza did not make the trip to Wuhan as she was participating in the Asian Games in South Korea last week.

Although Mirza skipped the Wuhan Open due to her commitments at the Asian Games, it later emerged from India yesterday that she will not be playing doubles with Black next season and has decided to partner Hsieh.