Indians fare well as Sania Mirza and Leander Paes reach finals in Yale and Winston-Salem respectively

FILE PHOTO: Sania Mirza

In some good news for Indian fans before the last Slam of the year, Sania Mirza, as well as Leander Paes have reached the finals of their respective doubles events in Yale and Winston-Salem.

Sania Mirza, who is paired up with Chinese Jie Zheng, progressed through to the finals at the New Haven Open in Yale with a straight sets victory over Silvia Soler-Espinosa and Carla Suarez Navarro in the semifinals.

The Indo-Chinese pair defeated Espinosa-Navarro 6-3 6-3 in an hour and 8 minutes. The 3rd seeded Indo-Chinese duo will face 2nd seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Katarina Srebotnik in the title clash.

Apart from the semifinal encounter, Mirza-Zheng were given a tough time in their earlier encounters, with the 3rd seeds prevailing in closely fought tie breaks 10-8 on both occasions.

Meanwhile, Leander Paes, along with Daniel Nestor also booked a final berth at Winston-Salem, defeating the pair of Eric Butorac and Frederik Nielsen 6-3 6-3 in the semifinals.

FILE PHOTO: Leander Paes

Paes-Nestor had a tough first round encounter against the Austrian pairing of Julian Knowle and Jurgen Melzer, winning 6-1 3-6 10-2 in a closely fought match.

However, the Indo-Canadian pair had no troubles in the remaining matches as they progressed without dropping a set en route to the final.

The quarterfinal win for the Indo-Canadian pair was a big milestone for Daniel Nestor as this was his 900th match win on the ATP tour, after starting his career as a 16 year old.

The top seeded pair will now face unseeded Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot in the final.

Apart from the doubles success, Somdev Devvarman also kept the flag flying high in men’s singles by qualifying for the main draw at the US Open.

Devvarman defeated James Ward in 3 sets 6-3 3-6 6-4 in the final qualifying round. Devvarman will face world number 84 Lukas Lacko in the opening round of the US Open.