Sania Mirza has closed in on her second title of the season in as many tournaments after reaching the final of the WTA Apia International with Czech partner Barbora Strycova, here on Thursday.
The top seeds thrashed America's Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan 6-1, 6-2 in just 51 minutes.
Sania and Barbora saved all five breakpoints in the semifinal match and broke the rivals twice in each set.
They will clash for the title with Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated Andreja Klepac and María José Martínez Sánchez 6-3, 6-4 in the other semifinal.
After splitting with Martina Hingis last year in August, it is Sania's sixth final in eight tournaments. She won the Cincinnati and Tokyo events with Strycova and the New Haven tournament with Monica Niculescu. It's only at the US Open (Quarterfinals) and Beijing (2nd round) events that she made an early exit.
last week, Sania had won the season-opener Brisbane event with Bethanie Mattek-Sands but ironically lost her world number one rank to the American, who jumped five places to dislodge the Indian from the top spot.
Yuki close to main draw
Melbourne: Yuki Bhambri inched closer to the Australian Open singles main draw after getting the better of Serbian Pedja Krstin 6-3, 6-4 in the second round of the qualifying event, here on Thursday.
24-year-old Yuki, who won the junior Australian Open title in 2009, saved all the three breakpoints in the match that lasted 68 minutes.
The Indian youngster broke his rival once in each set, and remained solid throughout.
His next opponent is 21st seed American Ernesto Escobedo, who brushed aside Tatsuma Ito from Japan 6-1, 6-3 in his second round match.