Sania Mirza-Zhang Shuai storm into Ostrava Open doubles final
In the semis, the Indo-Chinese pair defeated the fourth seeds Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya of Japan 6-2, 7-5.
India’s Sania Mirza and her Chinese women’s doubles partner Zhang Shuai beat the Japanese duo of Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya 6-2, 7-5 to move into the final of the Ostrava Open 2021 in the Czech Republic on Saturday.
In the semi-final match that lasted for about an hour and 20 minutes, Sania Mirza-Zhang Shuai had their fourth-seeded opponents on the backfoot from the start and never took their foot off the gas.
Sania Mirza and Zhang Shuai will face either Poland’s Magda Linette and Bernarda Pera of the USA, the top seeds, or the American-Kiwi team of Kaitlyn Christian and Erin Routliffe in the final.
In Saturday’s match, Sania Mirza and Zhang Shuai began well and opened up a 4-0 lead. Though they were broken in the fifth game, that didn’t trouble the Indo-Chinese team as they wrapped up the set soon after.
Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya were much better in the second set and were the first to eke ahead with a service break in the fifth game.
The Japanese pair, though, surrendered their lead in the 10th game. Sania Mirza and Zhang Shuai kicked on from there to wrap up the match in straight sets.
Sania Mirza will play her second final of the season at the Ostrava Open 2021. Teaming up with Christina Mchale of the USA, the Indian ace had made the title match at the Cleveland Championships WTA event last month but lost out.