Sania Mirza, Christina McHale fall short in final at Cleveland Championships
The Indo-American pair suffered a straight-sets loss to Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in the women’s doubles tennis final.
India’s Sania Mirza and Christina McHale of the USA lost to Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara in the women’s doubles final of the Cleveland Championships WTA event on Saturday night.
Playing their first tournament as a pair, Sania Mirza and Christina McHale were on the receiving end of a 7-5, 6-3 result in a match that lasted for just under an hour and 30 minutes.
In what was an exciting match at the iconic Jacobs Pavilion in Ohio, the Indo-American pair went toe-to-toe with the Japanese top seeds in the opening set.
Though a break in the seventh game pegged them back, Sania Mirza and Christina McHale restored parity in the very next game. But the duo once again fell short in the 11th game as another break handed Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara the opening set.
Sania Mirza and Christina McHale got off to a poor start in the second set, handing Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara an early break. Mirza-McHale failed to recover after the setback and surrendered the second set meekly.
Sania Mirza, who resumed her regular season post the Tokyo Olympics at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati last week, will next head to New York for the US Open.
The Indian tennis ace has been handed a wildcard entry into the women’s doubles of the season’s final Grand Slam.