Sania-Vesnina enter French Open women's doubles final

Paris, Jun 2 (PTI) Indian tennis player Sania Mirza
stormed into her maiden Grand Slam women's doubles final as
she and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina defeated American
duo of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in a thrilling
three-setter in the semifinals of the French Open here on
Thursday.
Seeded seventh in the tournament, Sania and Vesnina upset
their fourth seeded opponents 6-3 2-6 6-4 in 105 minutes at
the Roland Garros.
In Friday's summit clash, the Indo-Russian combo will
face the unseeded Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie
Hradecka, who stunned third seeded pair of Vania King of
United States and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3 6-3 in
another last four match.
This is Sania's third Grand Slam final appearance in her
career -- the first two being in the mixed doubles in the
Australian Open.
Sania and ace compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi had won the
Australian Open mixed doubles title in 2009 while they were
the losing finalists in the same Grand Slam tournament in
2008.
Sania, who paired up with Vesnina only in February, had a
strap just below her left knee but did not show any apparent
problem as she played some superb winning shots across the
net.
Sania and Vesnina broke their opponents early in the
first set to race to a 4-1 ahead before pocketing it 6-3 in 30
minutes.
The second set was a longer affair with both the sides
trading breaks before the American pair stepped up their game
and broke Sania and Vesnina for a third time to clinch the set
in 38 minutes and level the tie.
In the deciding set, Sania and Vesnina broke their
opponents in the first game itself and then held their serve
to take a 2-0 lead.
Huber and Raymond held onto their next serve but
Sania-Vesnina pair maintained their two-point lead at 3-1
by winning the fourth game.
However, Huber and Raymond broke the Indo-Russian
combination in the sixth game to level scores at 3-3.
But Sania and Vesnina responded in a superb fashion by
breaking their opponents in the seventh game to surge ahead
4-3 before holding serve to make it 5-3.
Huber and Raymond held their serve in the ninth game to
make it 4-5 but Sania and Vesnina held onto their nerves to
ensure that they did not blow away their chance of making it
to their maiden doubles final.
The Indo-Russian duo took 37 minutes to seal the the
third set 6-4 in their favour.
Since pairing up in February, Sania and Vesnina had won
two titles -- at Indian Wells in March and in Charleston in
April.
Sania is the lone Indian left in the fray after Davis
Cupper Rohan Bopanna and his Pakistani partner Aisam-ul-Haq
Qureshi lost in the men's doubles quarter-finals to top seeded
American brothers Bob and Mike Bryan yesterday.