It’s all plain sailing for Cara, Sania

By The NewsDay | Oct. 3, 2014 | 2 Min read

ZIMBABWE’S top tennis player Cara Black and her Indian partner Sania Mirza progressed to the semi-finals of the China Open women’s tennis doubles in Beijing

ZIMBABWE’S top tennis player Cara Black and her Indian partner Sania Mirza progressed to the semi-finals of the China Open women’s tennis doubles in Beijing yesterday after an easy win over the pair of Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez.

SPORTS REPORTER

Second-seeded Black and Mirza defeated the seventh-seeded Spanish duo in straight sets 6-3 6-1 to progress to the last four of the $5 427 105 tournament. Black and Mirza will face the pair of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia) and French Kristina Mladenovic in the semi-final round today.

Pavlyuchenkova and Mladenovic laboured to a 3-6 7-6 10-6 victory over the United States pair of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears yesterday.

Black and Mirza, who will separate at the end of the season, qualified to the quarter-final without going into the court after their second round opponents Lisa Raymond and Casey Dellacqua pulled out of the tournament.

They had also received a bye in the first round.

Yesterday’s match was a reunion for Black and Mirza who briefly separated last week when the former teamed up with Caroline Garcia of France during the Wuhan Open in China where they lost in the final to Martina Hingis and Flavia Pennetta.

Mirza did not make the trip to Wuhan as she was participating in the Asian Games in South Korea.

Keep Reading

Although she skipped the Wuhan Open due to other commitments, it later emerged that the Indian would not be partnering with Black next season.

Reports from India show that Mirza would be partnering Chinese’s Su-Wei Hsieh, bringing to an end to her rather successful partnership with Zimbabwe’s all-time women tennis great.

Black and Mirza began playing together towards the end of the 2013 season and won a number of titles on the road including back-to-back victories at the Tokyo Open which they clinched in 2013 and successfully defended in Japan a fortnight ago.