SanTina sizzle in Sydney

Sydney, January 15
Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis’ awe-inspiring run continued unabated as they lifted their second trophy of the season with the WTA Apia International title after clinching their 30th win a row.
The French third seeds Caroline Garcia and Kristina Mladenovic won the first set but the top seeds bounced back to register a 1-6 7-5 10-5 win in one hour and 13 minutes at the NWS Tennis Centre.
The world No. 1 team trailed 1-6 1-4 at one stage but levelled the second set 5-5 and then sealed it to stretch it to a Super tie-breaker. The US Open and Wimbledon champions raced to a 8-3 lead in the decider and clinched the issue comfortably to stretch their unbeaten run to an incredible 30 matches.
It was the 11th title together for the Indo-Swiss pair, continuing the good show from 2015 when they won nine titles including the year-end WTA finale. The duo won the Brisbane International trophy last week to start the season with a win. The 29-year-old Sania was the defending champion here but last year she won the title with American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
Bopanna, Mergea in final
Rohan Bopanna and his Romanian partner Florin Mergea entered the men’s doubles final with straight-sets win over Thomaz Bellucci Leonardo Mayer. Seeded fourth, Bopanna and Mergea defeated their Brazilian-Argentine opponents 7-6(8) 6-2 to progress to the summit clash of the $461,330 hardcourt tournament. Bopanna and Mergea will now face Jamie Murray of Great Britain and Brazil’s Bruno Soares in the final. Soares and Murray had defeated the Polish pair of Lukasz Kubot and Marcin Matkowski 7-5 2-6 10-3 in the other semifinals. Bopanna is the defending champion at this event. He had won the trophy last year with Canadian partner Daniel Nestor.
Kuznetsova demolishes Puig in final
Svetlana Kuznetsova rolled back the years with a ruthless 6-0 6-2 demolition of Puerto Rican qualifier Monica Puig to win her 16th WTA title at the Sydney International.
Dimitrov sets up Troicki final
Grigor Dimitrov beat Gilles Mueller 6-2 7-6(4) to set up a final against defending champion Viktor Troicki.