The women’s doubles final at Cincinnati on Sunday raised the curiosity level amongst the tennis fans, as the freshly split team of Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, had to battle it out on the opposite sides of the net, not only for the coveted title but also for the sole possession of the number one ranking which they had shared between them for the better part of the year. In the very first tournament after their split, Mirza and Hingis partnered Barbora Strycova and CoCo Vandeweghe respectively to reach the final.
Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova clinch the Cincinnati title
After being 1-5, 15-40 down in the first set, the Indo-Czech pairing of Mirza and Strycova came back strongly to take the first set 7-5, winning six games in a row. In the second set too, they were a double break up but the Swiss-American pair fought hard to regain a break back. However, they were unable to replicate what their opponents did in the first set lost the match 5-7, 4-6. Thus the win has thrust Mirza as the sole leader in the Women’s Doubles rankings.
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Difficult to play against Hingis
When asked about how strange it was to play against Hingis with number one ranking on the line, Mirza said that she wasn’t about to lie and it was indeed difficult to play against her. She had to solely focus on her partnership with Strycova and that is what they as a team tried to do.
“It's a very difficult situation. It's not easy because we are still good friends. It's never easy. The first we tournament we split and we come and we have to play each other. Of course, there is no better match to play than the final, so was difficult I think for both of us. I would be lying if I said it wasn't for me. But having said that, we are professional tennis players. We have to come out and we have to give our best and we have to try and win. That's all we can do, and we both tried to do that. But it was going to happen eventually. We had to play against each other at some point. I think it's better that it happened earlier, as soon as we came out because next time it's obviously less difficult to play.”
Parting Ways
On the split itself, she said that they honestly didn’t know that it was about to happen. She said that they both felt that they had to move on.
“I mean, you know, it's really not as dramatic as everyone wants it to be. It wasn't like we were going to part ways. It was literally a professional decision. We both spoke right after our match in Montréal. We said we'll sleep over it, wake up the next morning, and that is literally what happened. We woke up the next morning and we felt, okay, let's play with other people and see what happens. I think it's great they made final and we won the tournament. It's obviously good. They had a good tournament as well, and so did we. Maybe it was the right choice and that's it.”
Nevertheless, the Indo-Swiss pair will be seen playing together again to defend their year-end WTA Finals in Singapore.
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