Best Matches of Mirza-Hingis and Paes-Hingis

Tennis doubles seems like a forgotten sibling of the game nowadays, with singles grabbing most of the spotlight in the Grand Slams as well as other ATP Tour matches. But, to counter the views of many tennis fans who enjoy watching only few doubles’ pairs, two successful pairings of the Swiss maestro Martina Hingis with two Indians, Mirza-Hingis and Paes-Hingis proved how interesting a doubles’ game could get just by seeing the co-ordination and continuously flowing magical shots. Indian fans could actually boast of their players’ one of the best seasons in the past years.

Today, on Mirza’s birthday let’s have a look at her achievements in doubles and mixed doubles.

The world no.1 Sania Mirza, who along with no.2 Martina Hingis went on to win multiple tournaments which included 3 Grand Slams U.S. Open and The Wimbledon in 2015 and Australian Open in 2016. The other tournaments were Indian Wells, Miami Open, Charleston, Guangzhou and Wuhan and the BNP Paribas WTA finals Singapore. They went on to record a 41 match winning streak during this period.This successful partnership came to an end this year but they reunited briefly after. They certainly proved together that all the fun is not just in watching the Federer Vs Djokovic Finals!

The other successful partnership of Hingis was with another Indian, Leander Paes who seems to be finding his best as he is going past the age of 40! He won the Mixed Doubles Title in the Wimbledon as well as the U.S Open in 2015 and the French Open in 2016 along with Martina Hingis again!

Here some of the best moments from this pair’s season :

1. Sania Mirza and Hingis win the Wimbledon (July 2015)

                                         

Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis made a powerful comeback in the Wimbledon Womens’ doubles finals against the Russian pair  of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 5-7,7-6(7/4), 7-5. It was Sania Mirza’s first Grand Slam Title of her Tennis Career as well as this pair’s first Grand Slam together only after they decided to get together in March 2015. This victory of Sania Mirza certainly impacted the “cricket-struck” India.

2. Vintage Leander Paes claims 16 Grand Slam Title(July 2015)

Leander Paes claimed his 16 Grand Slam Title, along with Martina Hingis who captured her third mixed doubles title at the Wimbledon Mixed Doubles Title with a dominating performance over Alexander Peya and Timea Babos. The 7 seeded pair bullied the 5 seeded pair with the scores of 6-1, 6-1 in both sets to win the title. This was Paes’ second Grand Slam title of the year after he had won the Australian Open’15 earlier with Hingis and his 8 Mixed Doubles’ title overall.

  3.  Sania Mirza- Martina Hingis conquer the U.S Open(Sept 2015)    

The Wimbledon champions turned on their best 2 consecutive team in the U.S Open after their sublime performance in the Wimbledon earlier. They defeated Casey Dellacqua and Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3,6-3 in the finals! Along with that, they became the first top seeds to win the U.S Open after Cara Black and Liezel Huber in 2008. This was Hingis’ 11 Doubles’ Grand slam title at that time.

4. Leander Paes- Martina Hingis win The U.S Open Mixed Doubles( Sept 2015)

The Supreme duo of Martina Hingis and Leander Paes became the first team since 1969 to win 3 Mixed Doubles Grand Slam Titles in a single year after winning the U.S Open in the month of September this year. The fourth seeded pair shunned the American duo Sam Querrey and Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 to add to their earlier feats of the Wimbledon and Australian Open Mixed Doubles titles.

5. Sania- Hingis crowned at WTA Finals in 2015.

The duo of Sania Mirza and Swiss partner Martina Hingis added the 9th layer in their cake of ATP Tour titles on 1st November after winning the WTA finals in Singapore. They played a lopsided game with their 8th seeded Spanish rivals Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro to clinch the Women’s Doubles Title. Besides ending the year as top seeds, this victory became more special for Martina as it was her 50th WTA doubles title- a feat achieved only by 15 players.