Dubai, Feb 24: India’s Sania Mirza clinched her second doubles title of the season after she combined with partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands to defeat Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik in the title clash of the Dubai Championships here on Saturday.
The unseeded Indo-American duo prevailed over the Russian-Slovenia combo 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 in a tightly-contested final of the $ 2,000,000 hard court event.
After winning the first set rather comfortably, the eventual winners were made to struggle as Petrova and Srebotnik fought back strongly to take the second set.
Sania and Bethanie, however, sealed the issue in their favour by winning the crucial third set.
The two players had won the Brisbane International last month to make a superb start to the 2013 season.
This was Sania’s 16th championships wins in doubles, and she also has one singles title win.
Tsonga wins thriller
World No 8 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga saved five match points in a breathtaking third set tie-break to edge out Australian Bernard Tomic on Friday and qualify for the Marseille Open semifinals.
The third-seeded Frenchman, who lost the first set, eventually grabbed the tie-break 12-10 to seal a 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory after two hours five minutes.
Tsonga will face Gilles Simon in the semifinal after his compatriot upset title holder Juan Martin Del Potro 6-4, 6-3. Top seed Tomas Berdych had to work harder to move past seventh-seeded Jerzy Janowicz, who made a name for himself when he reached the Paris Masters final in November after entering the main draw from the qualifiers.
Berdych will meet 119th-ranked Russian Dmitry Tursunov, who defeated Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6, 1-6, 7-5.
Cilic crashes out
Top seed Croatian Marin Cilic was swept out of the Memphis International tennis tournament, falling 6-4, 6-2 to Japan's Kei Nishikori on Friday.
Repeat finalist Marina Erakovic of New Zealand will face Germany's Sabine Lisicki for the women's title.
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