adminCollin Matiza Sports Editor
THERE was no joy for top Zimbabwean female tennis player Cara Black and her Indian partner Sania Mirza at the end of this year’s Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada, where they lost in the women’s doubles final to Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci on Sunday.According to reports from Montreal, the fourth-seeded Zimbabwean-Indo pair lost to top seeds Errani and Vinci 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in a match which lasted over an hour.
To reach Sunday’s final, Black and Mirza survived a thriller in the semi-finals as they carved out a hard-earned 7-6 (7-3), 3-6, 13-11 victory to set up a Rogers Cup doubles final against top-seeded Errani and Vinci.
Black and Mirza knocked out the second seeded Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei and China’s Peng Shuai in a contest that lasted an hour and 50 minutes.
Having saved a set point in the opening set, Black and Mirza prevailed over their higher ranked opponents in a tie-break.
However, Hsieh and Peng fought their way back in the second set and comfortably wrapped it up 6-3, taking it to the deciding set.
In the third set, Black and Mirza opened up a 9-6 lead, before Hsieh and Peng rallied and held a match point at 11-10. But from there Sania and Cara won three straight points, to run away with the match on their fifth match point.
With that victory, Black and Mirza ended a three-match losing streak in their head-to-head with Hsieh and Peng.
Meanwhile, after coming off a Grand Slam victory at Wimbledon, top seeds Errani and Vinci captured the Rogers Cup doubles crown by beating Black and Mirza on Sunday.
The five-time women’s doubles Grand Slam champions Errani and Vinci have won their 24th Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) title since pairing up.
“It was a tough match,” said Errani. “The first set was very close.”
The Italian pair was forced to a tie-breaking first set by the tandem of Black and Mirza as both teams wouldn’t let up on their serves.
The second set was all in favour of Errani and Vinci as they served for the match and broke the Black-Mirza pair to win their first Rogers Cup title.
The defending champions of the cup were Jelena Jankovic and Katarina Srebotnik, who both competed in the tournament with different partners.
Jankovic paired up with Klara Koukalova, and their tandem lost in the second round. Srebotnik, on the other hand, teamed up with Kveta Peschke and they lost to sisters Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan also in the second round.
Black and Mirza reached the finals after defeating second seeds Hsieh Su-wei of Chinese Taipei and mainland China’s Peng Shuai. Both teams are heading to Cincinnati to compete in the hard courts of the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio where the team of Hsieh and Peng are the defending champions.
Errani and Vinci have made the finals in all three Grand Slam tournaments this year, winning the Australian Open and recent Wimbledon Championships in London while placing second to Peng and Hsieh at the French Open.
The Italians are hoping to conclude the year with another Grand Slam finals appearance at the US Open in Flushing Meadows on August 25.
Online Reporter