Sania-Bethanie duo clinches Cincinnati title

Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek lived up to their top billing to clinch the doubles title after a nail-biting final at the $175,000 Cincinnati Open tennis tournament here.

Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek lived up to their top billing to clinch the doubles title after a nail-biting final at the $175,000 Cincinnati Open tennis tournament here.

Sania and her American partner defeated Russian Alina Jidkova and Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus 7-6(4), 7-5 to romp home at the WTA Tier III event yesterday.

For Sania, it was her second Tour doubles title this year. Sania said she was satisfied with her performance and gave the credit of the win to team effort.

“We played better matches this week, but we’re still happy to win. I have to get along with somebody off the court to play with them; Bethanie and I are a good team,” she said.

Mattek echoed her views and also praised Sania for her forehand shots. “We are a really good mixture. We’re both solid on the baseline and Sania has a good forehand, so it opens up the court. Same with our serves,” the American said.

Meanwhile, Sania’s fine run at Cincinnati propelled her three places up to 35th in the WTA’s latest singles rankings issued today. She made her first semi-final appearance at Cincinnati but went down fighting against top seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia, who moved one place up to be at seventh spot after her title win.

In the doubles rankings, Sania gained two places to climb to 36th on the WTA computer.