Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina stormed into the finals of the French Open women’s doubles championship following their hard fought 3 set victory over the American team of Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber. Sania and Elena prevailed 6-3 2-6 6-4 in a match that lasted an hour and forty-five minutes.
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Having stunned the top seeded duo of Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in straight sets in the quarterfinals, the Indo-Russian pair had the first set wrapped up inside 30 minutes. However inability to hold serve eventually cost them the second set. Mirza and Venisna started with intent jumping to a 2-0 lead in the decider before being pegged back at 3-3. However, the Indo-Russian pair responded immediately snatching the seventh game going into the break with a 4-3 lead and more importantly with a break up. From then on it was a case of holding the nerves and holding the serves and the pair who already have the Indian Wells and Charleston titles to their names this year, did so with élan.
Thus, Mirza who failed to progress beyond the second round in the singles event booked her ticket for a maiden appearance in a Grand Slam women’s doubles final. Her previous best were a couple of quarterfinal appearances at Flushing Meadows in 2007 and Big W in 2008. Sania though has tasted Grand Slam success before lifting the Australian Open mixed doubles title in 2009 along with fellow countryman Mahesh Bhupathi.
In the final, Sania Mirza of India and Elena Vesnina of Russia will come up against an unlikely opposition in the unseeded Czech pairing of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka who upset the third seeds, Vania King of United States and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
