Sania Mirza-Martina Hingis create world record in capturing Sydney International

30th consecutive victory in a row for doubles duo.

By Sreekanth A Nair

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won the WTA Apia International title in Sydney on Friday, and created a world record for most successive matches won consecutively by a women’s doubles pair in professional tennis.

This is the second title this year for the pair after Brisbane International and their 30th victory in a row.

The victory against Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic was a comeback one, as they were trailing 1-6, 2-5. But the duo made a fantastic comeback to eventually win the second set 7-5 and the super tie-break 10-5 in an hour and 14 minutes.

“At 6-1, 5-2 the only thing we could say to each other was that it was only one break. That’s the only positive you can find from a situation like that. We tried to hold our serve for 5-3 to give ourselves another chance, then we had a huge game at 5-3 and the momentum went in our favor,” Sania said after the win.

“We’re really happy to win another tournament. We’re really happy with the way we fought,” she added.

“It was definitely a great test, and against a great new team. They were playing together for the first time this week, and I think we’re going to see a lot more of them. We had to take our chances. You don’t see much light in a dark tunnel, but then we had one or two opportunities here and there, and with one little chance we were able to turn the match around,” Hingis said after the victory.

The No. 1 ranked pair in women’s doubles has won 11 WTA doubles titles together – Indian Wells, Miami, Charleston, Wimbledon, US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing and WTA Finals in 2015, last week’s Brisbane International, and now WTA Apia International.

Mirza and Hingis had broken the record of 28 consecutive wins set by Puerto Rican Gigi Fernandez and Belarus’ Natasha Zvereva in 1994 when they won the quarter-finals in Sydney.

When WTA world rankings are issued on Monday Hingis will join Mirza as world No. 1 on doubles rankings.

About becoming world No.1 Hingis said, “I think it’s another chapter in my career, definitely. When Sania became No.1 in Charleston that was a huge stepping stone for her, and now for me, 16 years later, who would have thought I would have another opportunity to become No.1 again? It was a dream and now it’s reality.”