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The top-seeded doubles pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis beat the Chan sisters in straight sets 6-2, 6-1, to take an easy victory in the semifinals of the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open, a WTA event in Wuhan, China.
The siblings – Hao-Ching and Yung-Jan – from Chinese Taipei, are seeded 4th at the tournament, and had beat all of their previous competitors in straight sets at the tournambefore their loss to the Indo-Swiss pair today.
Mirza and Hingis, who are currently world no. 1s, come into this tournament on the back of successive victories at two Grand Slams, and a WTA event prior to the one currently underway. The pair took the title at the Guangzhou Open last week, beating Chinese competitors Shilin Xu and Xiaodi You in straight sets 6-3, 6-1.
In addition to their two Grand Slam wins, at Wimbledon and the US Open, Mirza and Hingis have also won four WTA events this year. They beat the pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in straight sets, taking the pair on again at the Miami Masters and beating them in similar fashion.
Their third WTA victory of the year came at the Family Circle Cup, where they demolished the Australian-Croat pair of Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak 6-0, 6-4. They followed up that win with the Guangzhou Open title, and should they win the finals of the Wuhan Open, it will be their fifth WTA title of the year.
Both Hingis and Mirza feature in the top 5 of the list of players with the most doubles title at WTA events. Zimbabwe’s Cara Black, who is known for being a doubles specialist, holds that record with 60, with her occasional partner, South African-born American tennis player Liezel Huber second with 53. The Huber-Black partnership was a very successful one, with the pair taking 4 Grand Slam victories together.
Hingis is third on the list, with a staggering 47 titles. The Swiss Miss, as she is known, is one of tennis’ most legendary figures, and holds a series of ‘youngest-ever’ records; she is the youngest ever Grand Slam singles champion and the youngest World No. 1. She took victory at the Wimbledon doubles in 1996, before even turning 16, and gained the World No. 1 ranking a year later.
She has enjoyed a strong run of form this year, taking two Slams with Mirza and three with 17-time doubles Grand Slam winner Leander Paes. Mirza has had her biggest doubles successes with Hingis, and the pair get along famously off-court as well.
They will now take on Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu of Romania. The pairs have only met on one previous occasion – in Rome earlier this year, where Mirza and Hingis took victory.
