US Open: Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares edge home to clinch mixed doubles title
Saturday 6 September 2014 11:33, UK
Top seeds Sania Mirza and Bruno Soares defeated Abigail Spears and Santiago Gonzalez in a tight match tie-break to win the US Open mixed doubles title.
India’s Mirza and her Brazilian partner Soares edged home 6-1 2-6 11-9 against American player Spears and Gonzalez of Mexico.
Mirza has now won the mixed doubles title at three of the four grand slams. She also tasted victory at the 2009 Australian Open and 2012 French Open, playing alongside Mahesh Bhupathi on both occasions.
Soares won the 2012 mixed doubles title at Flushing Meadows alongside Ekaterina Makarova.
Mirza and Soares had ended the challenge of Britain’s Ross Hutchings and his partner Chan Yung-jan in the semi-finals, also needing a match tie-break to win that contest.
Neither Spears nor Gonzalez had won a grand slam title before and they could not complete a comeback from 9-4 down in the match tie-break on Arthur Ashe Stadium.
"I got tight. He held his nerve. I needed that a little bit with my serve. I was serving well till then," said Mirza, who served a double fault on the first match point.
"I was making a lot of first serves. It's never easy. No matter how many you win, never easy to close it out."
