via Mirza, Black stun Singapore favourites 27 October 2014
Sania Mirza and Cara Black reeled off 12 straight games to stun defending champions Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai by the record score of 6-1, 6-0 in the WTA doubles final Sunday.
The Indian-Zimbabwean team, playing their last match together, lost the first game against the favourites but then put together the phenomenal streak to lift the Martina Navratilova trophy in Singapore.
It was the heaviest defeat ever witnessed in the end-of-season competition’s doubles final which dates back 41 years to 1973, the year the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) was founded.
And it sealed an amazing turn-around after Black and Mirza saved four match points en route to the final, including three in their semi-final against Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik.
With just under an hour played, Black sealed the title with an overhead through the centre of the court and then turned to embrace Mirza, who will partner Hsieh next season as both pairs split.
“When we won that first match, honestly we were both almost were like, ‘Okay, maybe that’s a sign. Maybe we’re going to win it,’“ Mirza told reporters.
“It was great – we saved the best for the last. I think today was our best match. One of our best matches at least, and one of our best matches we played against them.”
Mirza, 27, was making her tournament debut, while 35-year-old Black has won the title twice before with different partners and appeared at 10 straight WTA Finals between 2000-2009.
The result was all the more remarkable as China’s Peng and Hsieh of Taiwan, who also won this year’s French Open, had a perfect 12-0 record in doubles finals ahead of Sunday’s match.
“To end this way, we couldn’t have asked for a better start or end. It kind of sums up our partnership,” Mirza said.
“But I’ve also found a great friend in her. Almost like an older sister to me. I’m the oldest in my family, so I learned a lot from her on and off the court.”
COMMENTS
Well done Cara.
Well done Cara. Had no idea you are still playing. You, Byron and Wayne have done our country proud. So did Kevin Ulyett and the black player (sorry, don’t mean to be offensive but just cannot recall his name at present). Only hope that Zimbabwe tennis will pick up before too long.
Angela Wigmore I may be wrong but the name that comes to mind is Martin ZUWA. Just to go down memory lane see this:
Eddo André Brandes (born 5 March 1963) is a former Zimbabwean cricketer who played in 10 Tests and 59 ODIs from 1987 to 1999, spanning four World Cups. In the days when a number of Zimbabwe’s players were amateurs with other full-time professions, Brandes was a chicken farmer.
He took a hat-trick in an ODI against England in January 1997 that is still regarded as the highest by total average of the batsmen dismissed.[1] Only two months short of his 34th birthday, he remains the oldest player to have taken an ODI hat-trick.
He gained fame for his noted and oft quoted exchange with Glenn McGrath, after McGrath gets frustrated at being unable to dismiss Brandes. The bowler asked: “Why are you so fat?” to which Brandes replied: “Because every time I make love to your wife she gives me a biscuit.”.As of 2003 Brandes had moved to Australia to pursue a coaching career, and was formerly coaching the Sunshine Coast Scorchers who play in the XXXX Gold Brisbane Grade Competition. He now runs a tomato farm on the Sunshine Coast.
Flo Kennedy, Proud Kilimanjaro, Langton School boy, Patrick Flyer (Wrestling) come to mind, and of course the legendary KIRSTY CONVENTRY, ANDY FLOWER and HENRY OLONGO.
Doc don’t forget Peter Ndlovu and that diving lady Tracy Cox and Bruce Grobbelar from my team Highlanders and Liverpool.
Whilst we at it NICK PRICE.
More
The 1980 Zimbabwe women’s national field hockey team won the gold medal in women’s field hockey at that year’s Summer Olympics in Moscow, USSR. The squad of 16 women, was assembled less than a month before the Olympics began to help fill the gaps the American-led Olympic boycott created in the women’s hockey competition. Zimbabwe’s subsequent victory in the round-robin tournament with three wins and two draws was regarded as a huge upset, particularly considering the team’s lack of preparation and experience; it has been called an “irresistible fairy story”. Won at a time of great political transition in Zimbabwe, the gold medal was the country’s first Olympic medal of any colour.
Not forgetting that we produced numerous world class rugby players such as Ronnie Hill, Ian Robertson,Adrian Garvey, Beast Mtawarira, Tonderayi Chivanga, David Pocock, Ngwenya, Denis Watson, Mark McNulty, plus many others. Sadly there is little opportunity for our sportsman to excel in our own country because of the destruction over the last 34 years!
Unfortunately millions have now become the Scatterings of Africa.