Sania Mirza-Barbora Strycova Lose Apia International Final
The top seeded pair of Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova lost 4-6, 4-6, to their unseeded opponents in a match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes.
Highlights
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Sania Mirza is partnering Barbora Strycova of Czech Republic currently
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The duo reached the Apia International final but lost on Friday
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She won the Brisbane International last week
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza with her Czech partner Barbora Strycova lost the Apia International women's doubles final in Sydney on Friday. The top seeded pair went down 4-6, 4-6 in an hour and 12 minutes to Timea Babos of Hungary and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
Sania and Strycova played for the first time together this year in this tournament, ahead of the Australian Open, starting January 16.
Sania had paired with America's Bethanie Mattek-Sands to win last week's Brisbane International tournament.
The opening set today was a closely-fought affair with just one point separating the winners and the losers. The Indo-Czech combination won 25 points as compared to 26 by Babos and Pavlyuchenkova.
Not the we wanted but we'll smile cause we've had a good start to the year #Finals #42willhavetowait #nextstopMelbourne @BaraStrycova pic.twitter.com/qT9Hx2nqR0
— Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) January 13, 2017
In the second set also, Sania and Strycova could win only 27 points to their opponents' 30.
The Hungarian-Russian pair broke serve twice before Sania and Strycova fought back to equal the score. However, they were broken a third time at a crucial stage of the match and then Babos and Pavlyuchenkova held their nerves to serve out the match.
(With PTI inputs)