Sania gets confidence boost in Connecticut ahead of US Open
NEW HAVEN: Sania Mirza received a confidence booster ahead of the US Open beginning on Monday with a doubles victory at the Connecticut Open with Monica Niculescu of Romania. Sania and Niculescu had a straight sets win over Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Chuang Chia-Jung of Taiwan in the final. The Indo-Romanian pair won 7-5, 6-4 in the summit clash that lasted one hour and 30 minutes. The last time Sania and Niculescu partnered up was way back in 2010, where they joined forces to reach the quarterfinals at the Western and Southern Open. They played that one tournament together before calling time on the partnership. Sania recently parted ways with Swiss Martina Hingis after a hugely successful partnership. She partnered with Barbora Strycova of Czech Republic at the Cincinnati Masters last week and won their debut tournament as a team.
Despite winning a title on their first tournament back together, Sania and Niculescu both made it clear that this partnership is just for the short term and both will return to their regular partners in time for the US Open.
PAES-BEGEMANN LOSE WINSTON-SALEM: Leander Paes and his German partner Andre Begemann squandered five match points in the second set to eventually lose the summit clash against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez and Henri Kontinen at the ATP WinstonSalem Open here. They lost 6-4, 6-7(6), 8-10. After winning the first set 6-4, Paes and Begemann were 6-1 ahead in the second-set tie-break. But Garcia-Lopez and Kontinen reeled off seven points on the trot to take the second set and eventually the match.