The golden run ends; Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis crash out of Qatar Open

02/26/2016

After winning 41 matches on-the-trot, the World No.1 pair of Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis tasted defeat in the quarter-final of the Qatar Open on Thursday. The Indo-Swiss pair went down to Elena Vesnina and Daria Kasatkina 6-2, 4-6, 5-10 to bring the curtains down on their unbeaten streak.

A struggle in their first match against unseeded Chinese duo of Yi-Fan Xu and Saisai Zheng had signalled the slump in the form of the World No.1 pair. And it was proved true on Thursday after Mirza and Hingis, who had won 13 titles together, were stopped at the quarter-final stage by the Russian pair.

At the start, it was all Mirza and Hingis. The pair pocketed the first set easily by winning 81%of the first serves and 87% of the second. Mirza and Hingis had defeated Vesnina and Kasatkina in the second round of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy recently and looked set for another win by claiming the first set 6-2.

However, it all changed as the second set arrived, errors started creeping into the play of the Indo-Swiss pair. Vesnina and Kasatkina dominated the first service winning 85% of it and broke the Mirza and Hingis twice to take the second set 6-4. In the decider, the Russian pair looked the better team on the court by taking it 10-5 to end the unbeaten streak of their rivals.

So that's how the cookie crumbled .. just kiddin.Hehe.. We'll be back stronger than before💪#SanTina #4⃣1⃣✔️ @mhingis pic.twitter.com/1uKpPT8Wks
— Sania Mirza (@MirzaSania) February 25, 2016

With the defeat, Mirza and Hingis also fell short of surpassing the winning streak of Jana Novotna and Natasha Zvereva, who had won 44 matches on-the-trot back in 1990. The record for the longest winning streak belongs to Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver, who had won 109 matches without defeat between 1983 and 1985.

(Novak Djokovic applauds SanTina - read about the World No.1's take on the unbeaten run)

Before the defeat at Doha, Mirza and Hingis was last defeated in August in the semi-final of the Cincinnati Masters by the Chinese Taipei pair of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan. During their 41-match winning run, the World No.1 pair also won nine titles - the US Open, the Guangzhou International Women's Open, the Wuhan Open, the China Open, WTA Finals, Brisbane International, Sydney International, the Australian Open and the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy.

(Will the Sania- Hingis phenomenon turn the spotlight on women's doubles? - Read to find about the domination of the Indo-Swiss pair)