Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black lost to top seeds Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Peng Shuai of China in straight sets in the women’s doubles final of the BNP Paribas Open on Sunday.
The top seeds prevailed over the fifth seeded Indo-Zimbabwean combo 7-6(5), 6-2 in a contest that lasted an hour and 30 minutes, as they improved their perfect record in the WTA doubles finals to an 11-0 mark.
Sania and Cara started well, racing to a 4-2 lead in the first set and had a set point while serving at 6-5, but Hsieh and Peng fought back strongly to take the opening frame to a tie-breaker. “First set we were down when we started. It’s really windy, and (they’re also a) really good doubles team. Black has a lot of experience for the doubles and gave us like a lot pressure. Really happy to win again,” said Peng.