Apia International: Top seeds Sania Mirza-Barbora Strycova lose in final against unseeded pair

Sania Mirza will now enter Australian Open as a defending champion in women's doubles event, a tournament she won in 2016 with Swiss legend Martina Hingis.

New Delhi: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her new doubles partner Barbora Strycova lost to Hungary's Timea Babos and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the final of the Apia International in Sydney on Friday.

The top-seeded Indo-Czech pair failed to put up a good show as they lost to their unseeded opponents 4-6, 4-6 in a match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes.

The loss comes ahead of the Australian Open 2017, which starts on January 16.

In the semis, Sania and Strycova defeated America's Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan, in straight sets. The 6-1, 6-2 win came in just 51 minutes as the fourth seeds lost two serves each in each set.

On the other hand, Babos and Pavlyuchenkova entered the final with a 6-3 6-4 win over Andreja Klepac and Martinez Sanchez in their semifinal encounter.

Last week, Mirza won season's first title in Brisbane with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, but ended up losing her world number one rank to the American.

Mirza will enter Australian Open as a defending champion in women's doubles event. Last year, she won the title with Swiss legend Martina Hingis.

They ended the super-successful partnership last August.