Sania wins Ostrava Open for first WTA doubles title since Jan 2020

Ostrava (Czech Republic), Sep 26:  India's Sania Mirza and her Chinese partner Zhang Shuai won the women's doubles title at the Ostrava Open WTA Tennis Tournament, beating Kaitlyn Christian and Erin Routliffe in straight sets on Sunday.

Indian ace Sania bagged her first WTA title in 20 months as she and Zhang beat Kaitlyn Christian of the United States and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand 6-3, 6-2 in an hour and four minutes.

Sania had won her last WTA title at the Hobart International in January 2020, partnering Nadia Kichenok.

No.2 seeds Sania and Zhang has never teamed up before last week in Luxembourg, where they fell in the quarter-finals to eventual champions Greet Minnen and Alison van Uytvanck.

But this week, in their second event together, Sania and Zhang were commanding in the final, winning 76 percent of points behind both their first and second serves and staving off both breakpoints they faced in the match.

This is former World No.1 Sania's 43rd WTA doubles title and her second title since she returned from maternity leave in 2020.

Meanwhile, Zhang is on a hot run in doubles, having won three of her last five doubles tournaments, including her second Grand Slam title at the 2021 US Open alongside Samantha Stosur. Zhang is now up to 11 WTA doubles titles in her career.

In Sunday's final, Sania and Zhang started well and kept their opponents on the back foot throughout the first set. A breakpoint in the sixth game saw the Indo-Chinese pair take a 4-2 lead and ride the advantage to win the first set.

Hoping for a comeback, Kaitlyn and Erin, the third seeds, threw caution to the wind early in the second set but the ploy backfired against the experience of Sania and Zhang as the Indo-Chinese pair broke the opponents' serve in the third and seventh games to clinch the match and title with a straight-sets victory.