Sania-Barbora enter Pan Pacific Open final
Tokyo, Sep 23 (IANS) Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova entered the women’s doubles final of the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament with a 4-6, 6-3, 10-5 win over Gabriela Dabrowski and Maria Jose Martina Sanchez.
The Indo-Czech pair took an hour and 18 minutes to emerge victorious from the tough battle against their unseeded opponents here on Friday, winning 66 of the total 121 points played.
They earlier registered a commanding 6-2,6-2 victory over Miyu Kato and Yifan Xu in the quarter-finals and beat Misaki Doi and Kurumi Nara 6-7 (3),7-5,10-8 in the first round.
The second seeds will face China’s Chen Liang and Zhaoxuan Yang, who defeated Raquel Atawo and Abigail Spears from the United States 4-6, 6-2, 10-5. It will be the first meeting between the two pairs.
Sania and her new partner Strycova, following the world number one doubles player’s split from Swiss Martina Hingis, won the Cincinnati Open last month.
They were then beaten in the quarter-finals of the US Open. The Tokyo event is their third tournament together as a pair.
In the women’s singles category, Agnieszka Radwanska kept her title defence on track with an emphatic win over Olympic gold medallist Monica Puig, defeating her 6-2, 6-3 to claim her fifth semi-final berth at the tournament.
Radwanska awaits Caroline Wozniacki in the semis who beat Magda Linette 6-4-63.