Indian Wells (California), March 16 (IANS) India’s Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black went down to top seeds Hsieh Su-Wei of Taiwan and Peng Shuai of China in the women’s doubles final of the BNP Paribas Open tennis here.
Hseih and Peng maintained their perfect record in the finals, improving to an 11-0 mark with a 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Sania and Cara Saturday.
“I think we are not coming here for 11 record, whatever,” said Hsieh. “We just try for every match, try to win. So we didn’t think about the (record) or anything like that. When we get into the final, we don’t think. We just try every point. This is the main key we win.”
Hsieh and Peng edged a tight first set after nearly an hour’s play and rolled out to a 4-0 lead in the second. They relinquished a break, but regrouped to win the final two games.
“First set we were down when we started,” said Peng. “It’s really windy, and (they’re also a) really good doubles team. Black has a lot of experience for the doubles and gave us like a lot pressure. Really happy to win again.”
Hsieh and Peng are the first players from their respective countries to win the Indian Wells title.
With their Doha win earlier this season, Hsieh and Peng surpassed Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci to become the World No.1 doubles team.
Sania was looking to the BNP Paribas Open for the second time, having triumphed in 2011 with Elena Vesnina.