Uzair Rizvi BeyondHeadlines
Sania Mirza has created history by becoming the first Indian woman to make it to the finals of the French Open after she and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina defeated the duo of Liezel hubor and Lisa Raymond in a three set battle.
Seventh seeded Indo-Russian pair won the match, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in a hugely contested 105 minute semi final.
In the finals, the pair will now face unseeded Czech partnership of Andrea Hlavacova and Lucie Hradeka who beat third seeded pair of Vania King (USA) and Yerolava Shedova (KZH), 6-3, 6-3, in another semi-final.
This is Sania’s third Grand Slam final appearance after reaching the finals twice in mix doubles successively in 2008 and 2009 and winning the latter one.
But it’s her first women’s double Grand Slam final appearance.
Mirza and Vesina teamed up in February and since then they have displayed great co-ordination to win the titles at Indian Wells and Charleston.The Indo-Russian team haven’t lost a single set on their way to the semis. En-route they also stunned the top seed pair of Giselle and Flavia Panetta.
INDO-PAK EXPRESS DERAILS
In men’s double Rohan Bopanna (IND) and Aisam-ul-Haq (PAK) campaign came to an end as the duo was ousted by the top seeds Bryan Brothers of United States in the quarter finals of the French Open 2011.
The top seeds are looking for their second Roland Garros title and 11th Grand Slam title overall. The Duo popularly known as the ‘Indo-Pak Express’ went down fighting in a match which was suspended overnight because of bad light.
This was the third quarter final appearance in the last four Grand Slams for 11th ranked pair in the World.
