Sania-Strycova fail to cross final hurdle at Sydney International

Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Czech Republic's Barbora Strycova went down to Timea Babos of Hungary and Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets in the final of the Apia International tennis tournament in Sydney on Friday.

The top-seeded pair of Sania and Strycova lost 4-6, 4-6 to their unseeded opponents in a match that lasted an hour and 12 minutes.

The opening set was a closely-fought affair with just one point separating the two teams.

In the second set also, Sania and Strycova could win only 27 points to their opponents' 30.

The Hungarian-Russian pair broke serve twice before Sania and Strycova fought back to level the score. However, they were broken a third time at a crucial stage of the match and then Babos and Pavlyuchenkova held their nerves to serve out the match.

Image: Sania Mirza and Barbora Strycova

Photograph: Koji Watanabe/Getty Images