Tennis: Mirza, Vesnina downed in Dubai final

Faced a crushing 6-2, 6-1 defeat against Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond.

DUBAI: India’s Sania Mirza and Russia’s Elena Vesnina suffered a crushing 6-2, 6-1 defeat against Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in the doubles final of the WTA Dubai Open. The second-seeds proved to be no match for the top-seeds, who blew away the feeble challenge put up by the Indo-Russian pair, to win in just 68 minutes. Earlier, Sania and Vesnina had beaten Shuai Peng and Su-Wei Hsieh 6-2, 6-7, 13-11 in the semi-finals to advance into the title-decider, while Huber and Raymond had got the better of Nuria Llagostera Vives  and Anastasia Rodionova 6-3 6-2 in their last-four clash.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 26^th, 2012.