Sydney: Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Czech Republic’s Barbora Strycova went down to Timea Babos of Hungary and Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyu-chenkova in straight sets in the final of the Apia International tennis tournament here on Friday.
The top seeded pair of Sania and Strycova lost 4-6, 4-6 to their unseeded opponents in a match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes. Sania and Strycova’s played for the first time together this year in this tournament, ahead of the Australian Open, starting January 16.
Sania had paired with America’s Bethanie Mattek-Sands to win last week’s Brisbane International tournament. The opening set on Friday was a closely-fought affair with just one point separating the winners and the losers. The Indo-Czech combination won 25 points as compared to 26 by Babos and Pavlyuchenkova. In the second set also, Sania and Strycova could win only 27 points to their opponents’ 30.
The Hungarian-Russian pair broke serve twice before Sania and Strycova fought back to equal the score. However, they were broken at a crucial stage and then Babos and Pavlyuchenkova held their nerves to serve out the match.
Testing Oz draws for Murray, Novak
World number one Andy Murray could face challenges from Kei Nishikori and Stan Wawrinka if he is to reach a sixth Australian Open final following Friday’s draw.
The Scot, coming off a magnificent 2016 with a second Wimbledon crown, a successful Olympic title defence and the year-end top ranking, has lost five Melbourne finals, four of those to defending champion Novak Djokovic.
Murray, who was knighted in Britain’s New Year Honours list, faces Ukraine’s Illya Marchenko first up and could meet Japanese fifth seed Nishikori or Swiss legend Roger Federer in the quarters and 2014 winner Wawrinka in the semis.
Federer, seeded 17, faces a qualifier first up and could play 10th seed Tomas Berdych in the third round as he bids to add to his record 17 Grand Slam titles.
Djokovic, in the bottom half of the men’s draw as the second seed, has a tough first-round against experienced Spaniard Fernando Verdasco.
Verdasco, has beaten Djokovic four times in their 13 encounters and the Serb had to save five match points in prevailing over him earlier this month in the semi-finals in Doha. Last year Verdasco knocked out compatriot Rafael Nadal in a five-setter first round thriller in Melbourne.
Serbia’s Djokovic, bidding for a record seventh Australian Open title, is seeded to face Grigor Dimitrov in the fourth round and powerful Austrian eighth seed Dominic Thiem in the quarters. He could then meet Canada’s third seeded Milos Raonic in the semi-finals.
