Sania Mirza/ Elena Vesnina battle past Huber/ Raymond into Women’s Doubles final – French Open 2011
Seventh seeds, Indian Sania Mirza and Russian Elena Vesnina, rallied past fourth seeded Americans, Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond, in a three set thriller to advance into the final of the Women’s Doubles at Roland Garros 2011, second
of the four Grand Slam held in Paris, France on Wednesday.
The Indo Russian duo made a massive impact after arriving at court Suzanne Lenglen and earned early breaks to take a 4-1 lead in the opening set. Later they lost their serve once but kept remaining serves to bag the set with a
6-3 score line in thirty minutes. Mirza and Vesnina produced a slightly higher first serve share of 69 percent as compared to their rivals’ 65 percent and they registered an amazing 70 percent win on it.
The Americans, on the other side of net, roared back in a similar way in the second set. They took a 4-1 lead before Mirza and Vesnina could snatch a break back. Huber and Raymond then broke the lower seeds’ serve again in the
following game and held their serve in the last game to clinch the equaliser with a 6-2 win. They clearly outplayed their opponent by committing fewer double faults and producing a much better first serve share.
The Indo Russian tandem got back on track in the decider and broke Huber and Raymond’s serve in the very first game. They then held their serve to take a 2-0 lead. Although they lost their serve later to square the scores at 3-3,
Mirza and Vesnina got another break to eventually seal the set by winning six games to four in thirty-seven minutes.
Mirza is making her third Grand Slam final appearance after reaching final twice in mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi and winning the title in Australian Open in 2009.
Mirza and Vesnina teamed up in February and since then, they displayed great co-ordination to win titles at Indian Wells and Charleston. The Indo Russian team entered Stade Roland Garros in full confidence and they hadn’t lost
a single set on their way to semis. En-route to the semis, they trashed eleventh seeded Spaniards Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Anabel Medina Garrigues and stunned top seeded pair of Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.
Up next for the winning combination of Mirza and Vesnina is the unseeded Czech tandem of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka who downed third seeded pair of American Vania King and Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova in straight sets to
reach this final spot.
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