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Sania-Martina win 29th consecutive match, break 22-year-old record

Last updated on: January 14, 2016 18:07 IST

Sania Mirza of India and Martina Hingis of Switzerland celebrate

IMAGE: India's Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis of Switzerland celebrate. Photograph: Julian Finney/Getty Images

India's Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis, on Thursday, rallied to win their 29th match in a row to reach the Sydney International women's doubles final and break a 22-year-old world record en route.

The world No 1 pair came from behind to beat the pair of Romanian Raluca Olaru and Kazakhstan's Yaroslava Shvedova 4-6, 6-3, 10-8 in a closely-fought semi-final.

The Indo-Swiss pair surpassed the record of 28 straight wins set by Puerto Rican Gigi Fernandez and Belarussian Natasha Zvereva during their successful pairing back in 1994.

They continued their good showing from 2015 when they won nine titles, which included the Wimbledon, the US Open and the year-ending WTA finals.

Sania-Martina have now made it to their second straight final this year, having won the Brisbane International last week.

Victory in the final will give them their 11th WTA title together.

Thursday's semi-final was a well-contested affair that lasted an hour and 31 minutes.

The two teams traded three breaks each, but the Olaru-Shvedova pair broke for the fourth time to clinch the first set 6-4.

Down by a set, Sania-Martina came back strongly and broke serve twice, and also won a whopping 76 percent of points on their first serve, as they clinched the second set 6-3.

In the super tie-break, both pairs did well to hold service points but Olaru-Shvedova committed a double fault at a crucial stage which turned the match decisively Sania and Martina's way.

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