Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza received a confidence booster ahead of the US Open Grand Slam tournament beginning on Monday with a doubles title victory at the Connecticut Open with Monica Niculescu of Romania here. Sania and Niculescu bagged their first title together with a straight set victory over the duo of Kateryna Bondarenko and Chuang Chia-Jung in the final with a 7-5, 6-4 win.
Despite winning a title on their first tournament back together, Sania and Niculescu both made it clear that this partnership is just for the short term and both will return to their regular partners in time for the US Open. "I play with Barbora Strycova," said Sania, while Niculescu said, “I play with Vania King. That's why I said I hope it's not the last time we going to play together."
Paes, myneni in action too
Indian tennis ace leander Paes did not have the best of preparations to US Open as he and his German partner Andre Begemann squandered five match points in the second set to eventually lose the final against Guillermo Garcia-lopez and Henri Kontinen at ATP Winston-Salem Open.
Meanwhile, India's Saketh Myneni blew away Serbian Pedja Kristin 6-3, 6-0 ina qualifier on Saturday to earn his maiden entrance into the men's singles event of the US Open. Saketh will take on Czech Republic's big serving leftie Jiri Vesely in the first round. The 6 ft 6 inches Vesely is ranked 48th and had reached the fourth round at Wimbledon.