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Sania, Bhupathi reign in New Haven

August 26, 2007 13:21 IST

It was double delight for Indian tennis fans as Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi won the women's and men's doubles titles respectively at the Pilot Pen tournament at New Haven on Saturday night.

Sania and her Italian partner Mara Santangelo, seeded third, crushed top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber 6-1, 6-2 in the women's doubles final late in the evening, while top seeds Bhupathi and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia defeated the fourth seeded Polish tandem of Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 6-3, 6-3 earlier.

Sania and Mara made short work of the Zimbabwe-South African pair, winning the US $600,000 WTA Tier II event final in just 53 minutes.

The tournament was last in the tune-up to the US Open Grand Slam, beginning in New York on Monday.

Huber held serve in the first game but then the Mirza-Santangelo combo rolled through nine straight games, barely looking back en route to the straight set victory over the world's top team.

Playing in just their second event together, the Indian earned her seventh career Tour doubles title and her fourth this year, while Mara won her sixth career Tour doubles title and her fifth this year.

Bhupathi and Zimonjic, who claimed their first title in four tries at the Pilot Pen event, didn't drop a set but were put to the test in all the three matches leading up to the final of the US $675,250 ATP event.

Zimonjic praised Bhupathi, saying, "Mahesh is one of the greatest doubles players. He has won the US Open twice and I hope that I can win it once. I hope we can continue with this form and maybe play even better. I think Mahesh had a really good summer by winning Montreal and here."