Unstoppable Mirza and Hingis win third consecutive Slam at Australian Open

The last time Sania Mirza faced the pair of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka in a Grand Slam final was back in the 2011 French Open. Mirza was partnering Elena Vesnina, and they lost in straight sets – that was Mirza's first Grand Slam final in women's doubles. This time she would have her revenge.

Sania Mirza started the game with a good service hold, but somewhat surprisingly she was misfiring her biggest weapon, her forehand. At 1-1, a couple of unforced errors from Mirza and a double fault by Hingis gave the Czech pair the first break of the match.

The Indo-Swiss pair came out aggressively in the next game, as they were desperate to break back immediately, and they managed to do so. At 0-40, Sania and Hingis had three break points but unforced errors by both of them allowed the Czech pair to save all of them and take the game to deuce. However, Hingis conjured up a couple of brilliant forehand winners to bring the game back on serve at 2-2.

Meanwhile, both the teams struggled to get into any consistent rhythm, and this resulted in a series of eight breaks of serve being exchanged between the pairs.

Sania Mirza, who usually overpowers her opponents with her baseline game, was struggling there today. With the Czech pair, Hlavackova in particular, returning the ball with ample firepower, Mirza was unable to get her shots going and committed a lot of unforced errors.

Mirza was also failing to get her serve right. A double fault in the fifth game gave her opponents the break. The Czech pair, though, were not faring any better, and couple of unforced errors from Hradecka gave the break back to Hingis and Mirza, and made it 3-3.

Finally, in the 11th game, Hingis held her serve, for the first time in the game. With her partner struggling, the Swiss star took over the mantle and produced a couple of lovely winners, the last of which a trademark backhand winner down the line, to take a 6-5 lead.

At the other end, Hlavackova also held her serve for the first time and took the set to a tie-break.

While the first 12 games were tight affair, the tie-break was as one-sided as it can be. At 1-0, both the teams were involved in a long rally, when Hingis stepped in at the nets and played a stunning drop volley, which was called out. The Indo-Swiss pair challenged the call, and the replay showed that the ball was in, by millimeters, and that proved to be a momentum changer in the game. Hingis and Mirza went on to win the tie-break 7-1, and with it the set 7-6, which lasted 62 minutes.

In the second set, the World No.1 duo raised their game, and the Czech pair struggled to stay with them. The duo broke Hradecka's serve in the opening game of the set, and did not look back after that. The seventh seeds did try and fight back, but Mirza and Hingis held their nerves to produce two more breaks and take a 5-2 lead.

After Hingis missed the opportunity to serve for the championship with a couple of big unforced errors, they wrested three match points in the net game on Hradecka's serve. Hradecka and Hlavackova defended all three, before Mirza and Hingis won it on their fourth attempt to clinch the Australian Open crown.

This was Mirza's six Grand Slam title, and her first women's doubles crown at the Australian Open, having won the mixed mixed doubles title back in 2009 with Mahesh Bhupati. For the veteran Martina Hingis, this was the 53rd WTA doubles title of her career, and her fifth women's doubles crown at the Australian Open - last time she won it was back in 2002, with Anna Kournikova.

(Read: Will the Sania- Hingis phenomenon turn the spotlight on women's doubles?)