London, July 12:
Indian tennis star Sania Mirza scripted history by becoming the first from the country to win a women’s doubles Grand Slam trophy as she lifted the Wimbledon title with Swiss partner Martina Hingis after a stunning come-from-behind triumph, here.
Twelve years after turning Pro, 28-year-old Sania laid hands on her first women’s doubles Major title when she and Hingis battled past the second seeded Russian team of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 5-7 7-6 (4) 7-5 in a thrilling final.
In what can be considered an interesting coincidence, it was at these very historic courts that Sania had won the women’s doubles junior Wimbledon championship with Russian partner Alisa Kleybanova in 2003.
Sania had come close to winning a women’s doubles Major in 2011 when she reached the French Open final with Elena Vesnina but ended up runners-up.
The trophy added to the list of firsts that Sania has against her name. She had become India’s first woman player to win a Grand Slam when she won the Australian Open with compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi in 2009.
She later added the French Open (2012 with Bhupathi) and US Open (2014 with Bruno Soares) to her mixed doubles collection.
In yesterday’s match, it was a remarkable turnaround for the top seeds as they were trailing 2-5 in the deciding set but made a stunning comeback to reel off five straight games to clinch the issue.
Vesnina was all fired up and her smashing volleys at the net put Sania and Hingis in a lot of trouble. The Russian was left distraught at the end of the proceedings as she had quite literally played out of her skin. (PTI)
Follow our WhatsApp channel