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Australian Open: Unplayable Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis pair enters 3rd successive Grand Slam final
The Indian tennis ace and her partner Martina Hingis beat Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova in straight sets at Rod Laver Arena to enter their third successive doubles Grand Slam final.
New Delhi: A day after finding herself as one of the recipients of the prestigious Padma Bhusan award, Sania Mirza continued to rule the charts in the Australian Open on Wednesday.
The Indian tennis ace and her partner Martina Hingis beat Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova in straight sets at Rod Laver Arena to enter their third successive doubles Grand Slam final.
In the second women's doubles semi-final, the Indo-Swiss pair took just under an hour to demolish the German-Czech pair 6-1, 6-0. Known as the 'Santina', the top seeds broke their rivals twice in the first set, which lasted 27 minutes before routing the 13th seeds in the second set for a bagel.
They will play seventh-seeds Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in the final. The all Czech pair defeated unseeded Chinese pair of Yi-Fan Xu and Saisai Zheng in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 earlier today.
Mirza and Hingis captured Wimbledon and US Open titles, before winning the season ending WTA Finals to dominate the circuit in 2015. The doubles Team of the year continued the superb form in the new year, extending their unbeaten run to 35 with today's semi-final win. They have also won back-to-back titles at the Brisbane and Sydney International events, before the Australian Open campaign. Their last loss was to the Chan sisters in the Cincinnati Masters, before the start of the US Open last year.
Yesterday, on the 67th Republic Day of India, Mirza was announced as one of the awardees of Padma awards.
Sania, 29, enjoyed the most sensational run, clinching eleven women’s doubles titles, including two Grand Slam titles. They first teamed-up at Indian Wells in March last year. The exceptional performance propelled the Indian to the top of the WTA doubles rankings.
Tomorrow, Mirza will play against compatriot Leander Paes and Hingis in their mixed-doubles quarter-final. Mirza will partner with Ivan Dogic. The Indo-Croat pair the are top-seeds, while Paes-Hingis are unseeded.