Miami Open | Sania Mirza falls at the final hurdle; Roger Federer beats Rafael Nadal to claim top prize
Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova lost in straight sets to Xu Yifan and Gabriela Dabrowski in the women's doubles final of the Miami Open on Sunday. Meanwhile, Roger Federer won the singles crown here after a gap of 10 years, beating Rafael Nadal 6-3, 6-4 for his third title of the season.
After all the players had held their initial serves, the Indo-Czech pair was the first to make inroads as they earned themselves three break points in the fifth game of the opening set. Yifan and Dabrowski fought back to level at 40-all but were unable to save the game. However, with the score at 4-3 in Mirza-Strycova's favor, Yifan and Dabrowski
Both pairs began the second set tentatively but it was again the Indo-Czech team that tried to force the pace. They won two break points in the third game but failed to convert their chances. In the very next game, they were made to pay as Yifan and Dabrowski converted their only break point to take the lead. That seemed to kill off the game as Mirza and Strycova failed to recover. Yifan and Dabrowski sealed the win with a 6-3 score in the second set.
The showpiece event of the day, however, was the clash between long-time rivals Federer and Nadal. The duo had already met twice this year, with Federer coming out on top on both occasions. Fedal went neck and neck until the 8th game of the first set when the Swiss maestro managed to break the Spaniard. Federer then managed to hold his own serve to close out the set 6-3 in 49 minutes.
The second set followed a similar pattern with both players holding serve, but errors had started to creep into Nadal's game as he struggled to control his forehand shots. Federer pounced on the chance to put additional pressure on Nadal after breaking him in the 9th game and soon had an opportunity to serve for the title. It took Federer just one service game to secure his third title of the year and a third win over Nadal during the same period.