Sania-Marti clinch WTA Fils crown

Highlights

• Sania Mirza and Marti Hingis capped off a sensatiol 2015 season with yet another doubles title

• Hingis and Mirza are 9-1 in fils this season and have now stretched their unbeaten streak to 22 matches

• The duo combined to win two Grand Slam titles five WTA Premier titles and one WTA Intertiol title.

Sania’s titles in 2015

1. Sydney Intertiol (Sydney) with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands in January.

2. Indian Wells Masters (Indian Wells) with Swiss Marti Hingis in March.

3. Miami Open (Miami) with Swiss Marti Hingis in March/April.

4. Family Circle Cup (Charleston) with Swiss Marti Hingis in April.

5. Wimbledon (London) with Swiss Marti Hingis in June/July.

6. US Open (New York) with Swiss Marti Hingis in August/September.

7. Guangzhou Intertiol Women's Open (Guangzhou) with Swiss Marti Hingis in September.

8. Wuhan Open (Wuhan) with Swiss Marti Hingis in September/October.

9. Chi Open (Beijing) with Swiss Marti Hingis in October.

10. WTA Fils (Singapore) with Swiss Marti Hingis in October/November.

Singapore, Nov 1: Sania Mirza and Marti Hingis came up with another stupendous performance on Sunday to win the women’s doubles title of the prestigious $7 million WTA Fils at the Singapore Indoor Stadium here and comprehensively underline their supremacy in the category.

The top seeds took just an hour and seven minutes to rout Spanish eighth seeds Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez varro 6-0, 6-3 in the summit clash. This is the Indo-Swiss combine’s first year-ending title together though the 28-year-old Sania won the crown last year too with Zimbabwe’s Cara Black.

Sania and Marti, individually ranked the world’s two highest doubles players, didn’t lose a set, let alone a match, in the five ties they played in the tourment this week.

“On court, off court, we have a lot of fun. To play in tourments like this is what we’ve fought all our lives for and it’s incredible to play in front of a packed stadium. We feel very fortute. We’ve done some amazing things together and it’s the perfect way to end the year for us,” said Sania.

This is the pair’s ninth title together this season, having also won in Beijing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, US Open (New York), Wimbledon (London), Charleston, Miami and Indian Wells. Their only loss in a fil was at Rome.

Sania also reached the fil in Doha with Chinese Taipei’s Su-Wei Hsieh and lost but won in Sydney with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands earlier.

This is Marti’s 50th WTA doubles title, a milestone only 15 players have reached yet.

The pair has been in such sublime form that they have now won 22 matches in a row, having last lost in August to Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan in Cincinti.

On Sunday, the first set saw the top seeds thrash the Spanish girls as they converted all the three breakpoints received to clinch all six games played in the set.

The only highlight for the eighth seeds was the one breakpoint opportunity they received, which was easily saved by Sania and Marti.

The Indo-Swiss pair took the momentum into the second set. They broke the Spaniards once and won on their own serve twice to make it 3-0, winning all nine games played in the match till then.

However, Garbine and Carla filly found some legs to break their opponents and make it 1-3.

Later, serving to save the match at 2-5, the Spanish girls were 0-40 down, handing three matchpoints to Sania and Marti. The top seeds, however, wasted all the chances and had to wait till their own service game to seal the deal.

“It’s incredible. I feel like it was a perfect day. The energy was a bit better in practice and Sania just played out of her mind. She was everywhere today - on her side, behind me - it’s about choosing the right partner,” said Marti.

Earlier in the week, the reigning Wimbledon and US Open champions had topped the red group of round robin to qualify for the semi-fils undefeated. They then beat the Chan sisters on Saturday to qualify for the summit clash.

The WTA Fils is an annual event played by the top-8 players/pairs of the year who are divided into two round robin groups — red and white. The top-2 of each group progresses to the semi-fils and the winners to the fils.

The championship is generally considered the fifth most prestigious event on the women’s tour after the four Grand Slam tourments. It also has the largest prize money and ranking points after the Grand Slams. IANS