Singapore: In their last match together, Cara Black and Sania Mirza cruised to the doubles title at the WTA Finals with an authoritative 6-1, 6-0 win over defending champions Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei on Sunday.
For Black, it was the third time she had won the doubles crown at the WTA Finals after 2007 and 2008 partnering Liezl Huber, while for Mirza it was her first victory at the season-ending championships.
It was a surprisingly one-sided final, given Peng and Hsieh entered the match with a 12-0 record in doubles finals, including this year's French Open and Wimbledon in 2013, while Black and Mirza had a tough road to the final.
The Zimbabwe-India pairing saved one set point in their quarterfinal victory and staged a remarkable comeback in the semifinal against Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik, coming from 9-6 down in the super tiebreak to win it, saving three match points.
"After we won that first match, we thought maybe that's a sign, maybe we're going to win it," Mirza said.
The 35-year-old Black, who has won five doubles titles and five mixed doubles titles in Grand Slams, is unsure of whether she will continue on next year, so Mirza has agreed a partnership with Hsieh for the 2015 season.
"I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year, how much I'm going to play," Black said. "I just want to wind down a little bit and see where the next step takes me."
Sania and Cara were totally dominant in the first set, winning three of the four set points they earned, while they gave away nothing to their higher seeded opponents. Hsieh and Peng only managed to hold their serve in one game.
The third seeds had a perfect second set, notching all their service games and breaking their opponents thrice again, out of five chances.
The India-Zimbabwe combine also had a much better percentage of points won on their serve than Hsieh and Peng, whose two double faults at crucial junctures of the match also did not help them.
Sania had also reached the US Open semis with Cara earlier this season. Last month, the duo announced that the season finale would be their last tournament together.
