Rome: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won their first ever title on red clay, capturing the Internazionali BNL d'Italia trophy with a 6-1, 6-7(5), 10-3 win over Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the final here on Sunday.
first clay court title! woohoo! @MirzaSania @InteBNLdItalia #ibi16 pic.twitter.com/IaOwo2rodF
— Martina Hingis (@mhingis) May 15, 2016
The joint number one, Sania and Martina were playing their third straight final since the start of the clay court swing, falling both times to Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic at Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and Mutua Madrid Open.
Read: We are the hunted team now, says Sania Mirza
Across the net were familiar foes in Makarova and Vesnina, who were playing just their second tournament together since last summer, having briefly split as the former healed a leg injury.
U won again??! I can't keep up! Just cm home now @MirzaSania
— Farah Khan (@TheFarahKhan) May 16, 2016
Winners of the last three major titles, Sania and Martina roared through the opening set and carved out a 5-3 lead in the second. But the Russians levelled the set and later the match in a tie-break.
Sania and Martina shook off the hiccup to beat back their opponents and a gloomy forecast to capture their 14th title as a pair, and their fifth of 2016.
Invincible @MirzaSania @mhingis - congratulations for yet another win and many more to come.
— Riteish Deshmukh (@Riteishd) May 15, 2016
Also Read: Shoaib fumes at scribe after comparison with Sania
Heading into the French Open on a four-match winning streak, Santina next look to complete a box set of Grand Slam titles, a Santina Slam that began at Wimbledon with a win over Makarova and Vesnina which took them through victories at the US Open and Australian Open in January.
