Sania-Monica win Connecticut Open

New Haven (USA), August 28 

Sania Mirza received a confidence booster ahead of the US Open with a doubles title victory at the Connecticut Open with Monica Niculescu of Romania here. Sania and Niculescu won their first title together with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine and Chuang Chia-Jung of Taiwan in the final.

The last time Sania and Niculescu partnered up was way back in 2010, reaching the quarterfinals at the Western and Southern Open. They played just one tournament together before calling time on the partnership.

Sania recently parted ways with Martina Hingis after a hugely successful partnership. She partnered with Barbora Strycova of Czech Republic at the Cincinnati Masters last week and won their debut tournament as a team, by defeating Hingis and American Coco Vandeweghe. Despite winning a title on their first tournament back together, Sania and Niculescu both made it clear that this is just a temporary partnership and both will return to their regular partners in time for the US Open.

“I asked Sania in Cincinnati. I had an idea maybe she wanted to play here. I asked her. When she said yes, I was so excited. We won the tournament, so I’m happy I asked her,” Niculescu said.

“We know each other for a long time. Our games kind of suit each other, so you have that confidence. We kind of found our rhythm almost immediately,” said Sania. 

Radwanska tunes up for US Open with title

Top seed Agnieszka Radwanska declared it mission accomplished after clinching a 6-1 7-6(1) victory over Elina Svitolina in the final.

Radwanska accepted a wild card into the event because she wanted to tune up for the US Open and the 27-year-old Pole will head to Flushing Meadows brimming with confidence after collecting her 19th career WTA title.

“Thank you so much... for giving me that wild card,” Radwanska laughed during her winner’s speech. “I definitely appreciate it and I’ll be back next year for sure.” — PTI, Reuters