India's ace tennis star Sania Mirza and her Chinese partner Zhang Shuai sailed into the final of women's doubles of the Ostrava Open 2021 in the Czech Republic.
The Indo-Chinese pair defeated the Japanese duo of Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya 6-2, 7-5 in the semi-final a match on Saturday that lasted for about an hour and 20 minutes, as per olympics.com
Sania Mirza-Zhang Shuai had their fourth-seeded opponents on the backfoot from the start and never took their foot off the gas.
Sania-Shuai will face either Poland's Magda Linette and Bernarda Pera of the USA, the top seeds, or the American-Kiwi team of Kaitlyn Christian and Erin Routliffe in the final.
Sania-Shuai began well and opened up a 4-0 lead. Though they were broken in the fifth game, that didn't trouble the Indo-Chinese team as they wrapped up the set soon after.
Eri Hozumi and Makoto Ninomiya were much better in the second set and were the first to eke ahead with a service break in the fifth game.
The Japanese pair, though, surrendered their lead in the 10th game. Sania Mirza and Zhang Shuai kicked on from there to wrap up the match in straight sets.
Sania Mirza will play her second final of the season at the Ostrava Open 2021. Teaming up with Christina Mchale of the USA, the Indian ace had made the title match at the Cleveland Championships WTA event last month but lost out.
( With inputs from ANI )
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor