Sania-Hingis lose their first competitive match as a doubles team

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis lost their first competitive match as a women’s doubles team as they crashed out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix here. First-time pairing of Petra Martic and Stephanie Vogt pulled of a straight set stunner 6-3, 6-3 on Wednesday. [caption id=“attachment_2209164” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sania Mirza. AFP[/caption] Martic and Vogt were playing together for the first time and had one Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) doubles title between them. Before Wednesday’s defeat, Sania and Martina won back-to-back-to-back titles at Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston, a run which helped the India become the world’s No.1 women’s doubles player. Martina was not at her physical peak during the match and was treated for a back injury. The Indo-Swiss pair are currently No.1 doubles team on the leaderboard for the season-ending WTA championships -the BNP Paribas WTA Finals - to be held in October-November in Singapore, this year. In other matches, No.2 seeds Caroline Garcia and Katarina Srebotnik beat German pair of Antonia Lottner and Carina Witthoeft, 6-3, 6-3, while No.3 seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova downed Jocelyn Rae and Anna Smith, 6-2, 6-1. If Mattek-Sands and Safarova go on to capture the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix title this week, they will pass Sania and Martina the No.1 spot on the leaderboard. IANS