Sania Mirza is just one step away from clinching her third Grand Slam crown. The 27-year-old and her Brazilian partner Bruno Soares will face USA's Abigail Spears and Mexico's Santiago Gonzalez at the Arthur Ashe Stadium on Friday, in the final of the 2014 US Open mixed doubles.
This is Mirza's sixth Grand Slam final and has also been her best ever run at the US Open. The Indian already has two Grand Slam titles in her kitty - one at the Australian Open in 2009 and the other at the French Open in 2012 (both with Mahesh Bhupathi). A win in New York today will be a massive boost to her chances of completing a doubles Career Slam sooner or later.
Mirza has had a good run at Flushing Meadows so far this year as she also reached the women's doubles semifinal with Zimbabwean partner Cara Black, though the pair lost to veterans Martina Hingis and Flavia Pennetta 6-2, 6-4 on Thursday night. Mirza will be now hoping to recover fast, both physically and mentally, to give her 100 percent in the mixed doubles final.
Mirza and Soares, teaming up for the first time ever, beat Taipei's Yung-Jan Chan and Britain's Ross Hutchins 7-5, 4-6, 10-7 on Wednesday, in a match that lasted 1 hour and 33 minutes, to make it to the final.
The top seeds were trailing 1-5 in the first set before they started staging a massive comeback. They won the next six games in a row to win the first set. But Mirza and Soares dropped serve in the fourth game of the second set, allowing Chan and Hutchins to come back into the match and win the second set. The super tiebreak was topsy-turvy but the Indo-Brazilian pair showed nerves of steel to see it through and win the match.
Meanwhile, their opponents in the decider -- Spears and Gonzalez -- were finalists at the US Open mixed doubles last year as well. They defeated Donald Young and Taylor Townsend of the United States 6-3, 6-4 on Wednesday to book their place in the final.
Where to Watch Live
The mixed doubles final is set for an 10pm IST (12.30pm ET, 5.30pm BST) start. Live coverage in India will be on Ten Sports, while the live streaming option is HERE. International viewers can catch the action HERE and HERE or listen to the action free HERE. Live updates of all matches are available online HERE, HERE or HERE.
Eurosport will broadcast matches live in the UK and Europe. Viewers can also live stream the action HERE or listen to the action live online on BBC HERE. Catch the action live on ESPN and CSB Sports in the United States or watch online via live streaming HERE or HERE. SuperSport will telecast the action in South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa and viewers can catch the matches live online HERE.
