ZIMBABWE’S top tennis player Cara Black and her Indian partner Sania Mirza eased through to the quarter-finals of the China Open women’s doubles in Beijing, without going into the court after their second round opponents retired.
HENRY MHARA
Information from Beijing shows that the Indo-Zimbabwean pair qualified for the last eight on a walkover after Lisa Raymond and Casey Dellacqua pulled out of the $5 427 105 tournament.
Second-seeded Black and Mirza, who will cut ties next season, are likely to face the Spanish seventh-seeded duo of Garbiñe Muguruza and Carla Suárez.
Navarro, who were expected to play the Romanian wild cards Simona Halep and Raluca Olaru in a second round match yesterday evening.
Black and Mirza received a bye in the first round.
Today’s match would be a reunion for the two after they briefly separated last week when Black teamed up with Caroline Garcia of France during last week’s 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.
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Although she skipped the Wuhan Open due to other commitments, it later emerged that the Indian will 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.
