Connecticut: Indo-Romanian pair of Sania Mirza and Monica Niculescu defeated Chia-Jung Chuang and Kateryna Bondarenko to win the 2016 Connecticut Open women’s doubles title, here on Saturday.
In the finals, Mirza and Niculescu defeated Chuang and Bondarenko 7-5, 6-4 to claim their first Connecticut Open title as a team, while Mirza collected her third.
The duo survived a tough battle against Chuang and Bondarenko, who were equally impressive in their tournament run. Following a 7-5 first set, Mirza and Niculescu won a tightly contested frame, winning the set 6-4 en route to winning the trophy.
Earlier, in the semifinals against Andreja Klepac and Katarina Srebotnik, Mirza and Niculescu were on a back-foot after losing the their first set of the tournament, 2-6. The duo stormed back in the second set to win it 6-3. However, it was a tough third set for the Indian-Romanian pair as they were stretched to the tiebreaker, before finally winning it 10-8 to book a finals berth.
They had defeated Darija Jurak of Croatia and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia in straight sets 6-1, 6-4 in the quarter-final of the $ 761,000 Connecticut Open.
Meanwhile, Agnieszka Radwanska captured her first Connecticut Open title on Saturday afternoon, defeating Elina Svitolina in the finals. In the final, Radwanska opened with a dominant 6-1 first set, winning 85 percent of her first serves. The second set was a back-and-forth affair, featuring several breaks of serve and a tiebreaker. However, the World No. 4 owned the tiebreaker, utilizing her phenomenal shot making to move past Svitolina 6-1, 7-6(3) and capture her first Connecticut Open title.