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Top seeds Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza clinched the Wuhan Open after beating the Romanian duo of Irina-Camelia Begu and Monica Niculescu in straight sets 6-2 6-3 in the final on Saturday.
The opening set saw the Indo-Swiss pair get 65 percent of their first serve as compared to 74% of their opponents but had the upper hand in the first service return points win percentage, clinching 60 percent of the points as compared to 38 percent of Begu and Niculescu. The first set saw the number one seeds take a 2-0 lead before Hingis was broken in the third game. But the Indo-Swiss pair broke back soon after to go 3-1 up.
Both pairs held serve following that before Mirza and Hingis broke the Romanian pair’s serve in the 8th game to take a one-set lead.
The second set saw the Romanian pair once again do well in their first serve, but Mirza and Hingis outnumbered their opponents in the percentage of points won on both First and Second service with 61 percent and 58 percent respectively and also won a larger percentage in the first service return points with 53 percent as compared to 38 percent. Remarkably, Mirza and Hingis won 4 straight games after being 0-2 down to make it 4-2 down in the set and then took the set a while later to win the title.
The victory continues the exceptional run for Mirza and Hingis in the year 2015 and further establishes their position as the numero uno ranked pair in Women’s doubles. The duo became World No.1 in April 2015 and ever since then have clinched two grand slam titles – the Wimbledon and US Open. The Wuhan Open is the pair’s 7th title in 2015 and they would be hoping to extend their winning run further and win a few more crowns before the end of the year.
This is also the pair’s second win against the Romanian pair this year, after having beaten them at Rome 6-4 6-1 in the second round.
