Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina beat Americans Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond to storm into the French Open finals. Seeded seventh in the tournament, Mirza and Vesnina beat their fourth-seeded adversary 6-3, 2-6, and 6-4 in a 105-minute semi-final contest at the Roland Garros.
In the final, the Indo-Russian combo will face the unseeded Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka who beat third-seeded pair of Vania King of United States and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3 in the other semi-final.
This is Mirza third Grand Slam final appearance in her career - the first two being in the mixed doubles in the Australian Open. Sania and ace compatriot Mahesh Bhupathi had won the Australian Open mixed doubles in 2009 while they were the losing finalists in the same Grand Slam tournament in 2008.
Mirza, who paired up with Vesnina only in February, had a strap just below her left knee but did not show any clear difficulty as she played some excellent delightful shots across the net. Mirza and Vesnina broke their adversary early in the first set to race to 4-1 ahead before theft it 6-3 in 30 minutes.
The second set was a longer affair with both sides breaking serves, though Mirza and Vesnina were broken thrice in their serves to lose it 2-6 in 38 minutes. In the deciding set, Sania and Vesnina broke their adversary serve in the first game itself and held theirs to take a 2-0 lead.
Huber and Raymond held onto their next serve but Mirza and Vesnina uphold their two-point lead at 3-1 by charming the fourth game. But in the sixth game, Mirza and Vesnina were broken and the score was leveled 3-3.
The Indo-Russian pair responds in a superb fashion by breaking their adversary in the seventh game to surge ahead 4-3 before holding serve to make it 5-3. Huber and Raymond held their serve in the ninth game to make it 4-5. But Mirza and Vesnina held onto their nerves to take the third set 6-4 in 37 minutes and arrive at their first Grand Slam final together. Since their first combination in February, Mirza cand Vesnina have won two titles - at the Indian Wells in March and in Charleston in April.