Sania Mirza, Hradecka pair goes down in Charleston Open final

Charleston: Veteran Indian tennis player Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Lucie Hradecka’s splendid run at the Charleston Open ended after they lost the title clash to Andreja Klepac and Magda Linette. The unseeded Mirza and Hradecka went down 2-6 6-4 7-10 in one hour 24 minutes to the fourth seed Polish-Slovenian duo on Sunday. […]

Charleston: Veteran Indian tennis player Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Lucie Hradecka’s splendid run at the Charleston Open ended after they lost the title clash to Andreja Klepac and Magda Linette.

The unseeded Mirza and Hradecka went down 2-6 6-4 7-10 in one hour 24 minutes to the fourth seed Polish-Slovenian duo on Sunday. Mirza and Hradecka had a stunning run at the WTA 500 event, reaching the women’s doubles final after pulling off a major upset by stunning top seeds Zhang Shuai and Caroline Dolehide in the semifinals.

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In the quarterfinals, they got the better of third seeds Alexa Guarachi and Jessica Pegula. Mirza and Hradecka had also reached the semifinal of the Dubai Tennis Championships in February.

The 35-year-old Mirza, who is India’s most accomplished woman tennis player having won six Grand Slam titles, including three mixed doubles trophies, had earlier announced that 2022 would be her last season.

Belinda Bencic won three of the last four games to outlast Ons Jabeur 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 and win the Credit One Charleston Open for her first clay-court championship. Bencic won her sixth career WTA title and first since the Tokyo Olympic.

Bencic lost her opening match in Indian Wells last month and wasn’t sure what direction she was headed. Things began to turn in Miami where she reached the semifinals before losing and she built on that positive momentum in Charleston.

“I feel like is is the tournament that you breakthrough and then it goes the right way,” she said. “So I’m happy about it.”

Bencic, of Switzerland, reached the semifinals here in her first visit in 2014 and hadn’t advanced that far until this year. She earned $158,000 for winning the season’s opening clay-court tournament.

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