Sania Mirza, Elena Vesnina win women’s doubles title at BNP Paribas Tennis Open

Sania Mirza and her Russian partner Elena Vesnina won the women’s doubles title at the BNP Paribas Tennis Open, defeating eighth-seeded Americans Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy 6-0 7-5.

Mirza and Vesnina took the first set on Saturday in just 24 minutes before the Americans jumped to a quick 3-0 lead in the second. Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy broke for a second time to go 5-1 up, but the Indian-Russian duo roared back to reel off six games to take the title without dropping a set in the entire tournament.

Mirza and Vesnina have become the fourth straight unseeded pair to win the title here. Mirza has now won 10 doubles titles and Vesnina four. “We tried playing together in Dubai and Doha and it worked fine,” Vesnina said.

“From our first match, you could see it was already a team. It really works. We weren’t even supposed to play here, because initially I wasn’t going to play Indian Wells. Now, we’re planning to play the rest of the year. To start with, till Wimbledon and that is six months in any case.”

Djoko beats Federer again
Meanwhile, Novak Djokovic extended his perfect record this season to 17-0 with a thrilling 6-3 3-6 6-2 victory over Roger Federer to reach the final.

He will face top seed Rafa Nadal in the final, the Spaniard having come from 1-4 down to power past Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 6-4 6-4 in the last four. Djokovic, who will replace Federer as world number two when the new rankings are issued on Monday, broke his opponent three times in a third set of brilliant shot-making to triumph in almost two hours.

Nadal, covering the court with his customary lightning speed, broke del Potro’s serve three times in a high-quality encounter to win in one hour 51 minutes.