Sania Wins Doubles Final in Pilot Pen tournament

Sania and her Italian partner Mara Santangelo, seeded 3rd, defeated top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the women's doubles final at the Pilot Pen tournament at New Haven, USA. Sania and Mara made short work of the Zimbabwe-South African pair to win the final match in just 53 minutes in the $600,000 WTA Tier II event, which was last stop for most tennis stars on the way to the US Open Grand Slam beginning in New york tomorrow.

Huber held serve in the first game of the match but then the Mirza-Santangelo combo rolled through nine straight games, barely looking back en route to the straight set victory over the world's top team. Playing in just their second event together, the Indian earned her seventh career Tour doubles title and her fourth this year while Mara won her sixth career Tour doubles title and her fifth this year.

On Wednesday, in singles match, Sania lost her 2nd round game to Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko. The match lasted about one-and-a-half hours and the Indian, who did not drop a single game in the second set, eventually crashed out with a 3-6, 6-0, 3-6 defeat.

Sania Moves Up to Rank 29th

Sania Mirza's win over much higher ranked opponents in the past few weeks has seen her climb to the 29th rank in the latest WTA singles rankings. She now has 915 points.

Sania had also won her match against former former world No.1 Martina Hingis in the East West Bank Classic but was upset by 52nd ranked French woman Virginie Razzano 6-1 7-6 (6) in the nail-biting singles pre-quarterfinals match.

Sania's doubles ranking has also jumped to 25th rank with 1,321 points after a good run in recent weeks. Sania and her American partner Bethanie Mattek reached the quarterfinal of the East West Bank Classic, which boosted their improvement in the doubles rankings.

Sania Stuns Hingis

Sania Mirza’s sensational form continued unabated as she upset 7th seed Martina Hingis to enter the quarter-finals of the $ 600,000 East West Bank Classic tournament at Los Angeles. Sania beat the world No. 12 Swiss 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to enter the last eight at the Tier-II hard court tournament.

Sania will play the winner of French Virginie Razzano and Shahar Peer of Israel in the quarter-finals. She achieved a career-best WTA ranking of 30 mainly because of her sterling form at the USA hard court for the past three weeks. Sania’s impressive build up to the US Open started with the Cincinnati Open, where she reached the quarter-finals and followed it up with a final appearance at Stanford and a semi-final appearance at Acura Classic last week. On the way, she has upset three top-20 players Tatiana Golovin, Patty Schnyder and Dinara Safina over the last three weeks.

Today it was the turn of former Wimbledon champion Hingis, with whom Sania's rivalry on court is going on for quite some time. With this win, Sania’s record against Hingis stands at 2-2, the last two having gone in favor of the Indian. Sania had earlier beaten the former world number in straight sets at a hard court event in Seoul last year.

In doubles, Sania has teamed up with American Bethanie Mattek and the duo will open its campaign against the Slovakian-Dutch pair of Janette Husarova and Michaella Krajicek.

Sania Breaks Into Top-30

Sania Mirza reached a career-high ranking of 30 on the latest WTA list released Monday following her recent exploits at the US Open hard court series. Sania, who was ranked 31 the previous week, reached the quarter-final at the Acura Classic in San Diego, before going down 6-1, 6-2 to eventual champion Maria Sharapova. Before that on July 29th, in the final match of Stanford classic title, Sania was defeated by Top seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-2.

Sania becomes the first Indian, man or woman, to be in the top-30 after Ramesh Krishnan who was ranked 23 in 1987. Sania's career earnings now stand at $827,476.

Sania maintained her doubles ranking of 26. She partnered Israel's Shahar Peer to win the doubles title of Stanford classic beating Chakvetadze and Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 7-6 (5) in the final but had a first round exit at San Diego.

Sania was entered in the main draw of the $600,000 East West Bank Classic at Los Angeles this week, and faces a qualifier in the first round. Sania, placed in the second quarter of the 64-size draw, has the prospects of clashing with former world no. 1 Martina Hingis, seeded seventh for the week.