Sydney International: Sania Mirza-Barbora Strycova make final, close in on second title

Sydney: Sania Mirza has closed in on her second title of the season in as many tournaments after reaching the final of the WTA Apia International with Czech partner Barbora Strycova, in Sydney on Thursday. [caption id=“attachment_3201108” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Sania Mirza-Barbora Strycova. AFP[/caption] The top seeds thrashed America’s Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan 6-1 6-2 in just 51 minutes. Sania and Barbora saved all five breakpoints in the semifinal match and broke the rivals twice in each set. They will clash for the title with Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated Andreja Klepac and María José Martínez Sánchez 6-3 6-4 in the other semifinal. After splitting with Martina Hingis last year in August, it is Sania’s sixth final in eight tournaments. She won the Cincinnati and Tokyo events with Strycova and the New Haven tournament with Monica Niculescu. It’s only at the US Open (Quarterfinals) and Beijing (2nd round) events that she made an early exit. Last week, Sania had won the season-opener Brisbane event with Bethanie Mattek-Sands but ironically lost her world number one rank to the American, who jumped five places to dislodge the Indian from the top spot.