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Sania enters doubles final

Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sania Mirza are intent upon claiming their second tournament triumph of the year here on Saturday as they look to establish themselves as the best women’s doubles pairing in the world.

Dubai-based Sania and Mattek-Sands won through to the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship final with a 6-2, 7-5 success over Zimbabwe’s Cara Black and Anastasia Rodionova, of Australia, on Centre Court in Friday’s first semi showdown.

The Indian professional, 26, and her 27-year-old American playing partner will now face seeded opposition in this weekend’s showpiece in either the second favourites Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik or the fourth-ranked pairing Nuria Llagostera Vives and Jie Zheng.

“We’re getting better with every match,” said Sania, who prevailed alongside Mattek-Sands at the Brisbane International back in January. “We’re trying to work on the things that we didn’t do well in the previous match and get better at them in the next one. That’s how you keep improving.

“It’s good that we’re maybe peaking at the right time and now there’s just one more match to go.

“We’re glad that we have a shot at the title. We’re in the final round and, if we keep playing like this, we can win.

“We want to try and get our second title of the year — whether it’s this week or next — and, hopefully, there will be a few more to follow.

“We believe that we can be a very good team and perhaps the best in the world, so that’s our goal. We’re going to try to do well — and win — in Grand Slams and, if we keep playing like that, we don’t see why we cannot achieve that.”

Victory in this weekend’s finale would also alleviate painful memories of last year’s clash for Sania, who finished as a runner-up to Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 12 months ago.

“Last year, I was in the final here with (Elena) Vesnina and we couldn’t get a win, so hopefully we can do tomorrow (Saturday),” she added.

alex@khaleejtimes.com