Extending their incredible unbeaten record, Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis on Saturday won their eighth trophy of the season and fourth in a row, winning the WTA China Open doubles here.
The top seeds faced stiff resistance from sixth seed Taipei girls Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan before winning 6-7(9), 6-1, 10-8 in the final which lasted one hour and 40 minutes.
In the match tie-breaker, the two pair were going neck and neck and the score was 7-7 at one stage but Sania and Hingis won three of the next four points to clinch the issue.
It was fourth title in a row for the Sania-Hingis pair.
In a remarkable run, they have dropped only two sets in their last 17 matches in four tournaments.
It was ninth title for Sania in the 2015 season and eighth with Swiss great Hingis.
They had won titles at Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, the US Open, Guangzhou and Wuhan before today’s win.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal overcame his nemesis Fabio Fognini with a spirited 7-5, 6-3 victory to reach the ATP China Open final. And Novak Djokovic brushed off David Ferrer 6-2, 6-3 where Nadal stands between the Serb and a sixth title in Beijing.
Nadal has lost three times to Fognini this year, including at last month’s US Open, but he redressed the balance with a tight win.
In Sunday’s final, Nadal will be seeking his fourth trophy of a season in which he has failed to win a Grand Slam title for the first time since 2004 and has seen his ranking drop to eighth.
Paire stuns Nishikori
Meanwhile, lightning struck twice for Kei Nishikori as the defending ATP Japan Open champion was defeated by “shoeless” Frenchman Benoit Paire in an explosive semifinal.
Paire, playing in a pair of badly torn sneakers following a forlorn dash to buy some new ones, won a nail-biter 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 to prove his first-round win over Nishikori at the US Open six weeks ago was no fluke.
Top seed Stan Wawrinka awaits his close friend in Sunday’s final after the French Open champion produced a clinical 6-4, 7-6 win over Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller.
The results:
At Beijing: ATP & WTA China Open: Men: Semifinals: Rafael Nadal bt Fabio Fognini 7-5, 6-3; Novak Djokovic bt David Ferrer 6-2, 6-3.
Women: Semifinals: Timea Bacsinszky bt Ana Ivanovic 5-7, 6-4, 6-1; Garbine Muguruza bt Agnieszka Radwanska 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Doubles: Final: Sania Mirza & Martina Hingis bt Hao-Ching Chan & Yung-Jan Chan 6-7(9), 6-1, 10-8.
At Tokyo: ATP Japan Open: Semifinals: Stan Wawrinka bt Gilles Muller 6-4, 7-6(5); Benoit Paire bt Kei Nishikori 1-6, 6-4, 6-2.
