It seems that her new partnership with Barbora Strycova has paid off well for Sania Mirza. Following her disappointing results at the recently-concluded 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio, Sania has managed to win Cincinnati Open on August 21 and thus moved to the top spot in Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) doubles rankings. In the said match, the pair of Sania and Strycova beat Martina Hingis and Coco Vandeweghe in straight sets – 7-5, 6-4. Incidentally, it was Hingis with whom Sania had risen to the top of global rankings in the doubles format.
No Olympic hangover
In the recent Olympics a lot was expected from Mirza, who took part in both singles and doubles competitions. However, she came away unsuccessful in both the events much to her chagrin and that of the whole nation. However, the consummate professional that she is, Mirza has been able to put it all behind her, and her new partnership with Strycova – who hails from Czech Republic – seems to have helped her a lot.
How Hingis fared at Olympics
In contrast to Mirza, Hingis had a much better time at Rio where she paired up with Timea Bacsinszky and won a silver medal for Switzerland.
Why did the partnership end?
Both Hingis and Mirza have made it quite clear that they called it quits because they were unable to achieve the results that they were aiming for when they started their memorable journey as a team. However, the pair is expected to be seen together in Singapore during October this year when WTA Tour Championships take place.
As they revealed in their joint statement, the pair won three grand slams to go with 11 WTA doubles titles. However, this gave birth to rather high expectations among themselves and they were unable to get the results they wanted to, especially in the last few months.
Both Hingis and Mirza have taken great pains to clarify that their decision has been entirely professional and based solely on their performance in recent tournaments.
How did their partnership start?
Hingis and Mirza came together for the first time in March 2015 and they started off their journey in excellent fashion with a hat-trick of titles at Indiana Wells, Charleston, and Miami.
A wonderful relationship
Both Hingis and Mirza have said that they will continue to share a wonderful relationship as individuals in spite of their professional parting of ways. They have also said that they are keen to take part together in the WTA finals event in Singapore in October. They also hope that this announcement will end speculations in the media regarding possible reasons for their split.
Whatever be the reason, fans of the now-separated pair will have much to look forward to come October and one feels that there are many who will wish them to be together again. After all, the pair has given many fans in India plenty of moments to be proud of and they would want that to continue in the days ahead as well.
Read More:
Sania Mirza: Brand Ambassador of Telangana
Biography of Sania Mirza
