Sania-Rodionova clinch doubles title at Pattaya Open

Pattaya, Feb 12 (IBNS) India's Sania Mirza and her Australian partner Anastasia Rodionova won the doubles title at the WTA Pattaya Open beating Hao-ching Chan and Yung-jan Chan of Chinese Taipei in the final here Sunday.

The Indo-Australian pair, who were the top seeds, fought back valiantly despite being a set down to win the title in a tensed super tie-break 3-6, 6-1, 10-8.

Sania, playing without her regular partner Elene Vesnina, and Anastasia won 68 percent points on their first serve and took an hour and six minutes win the title clash.

Sania and Rodionova had made the final with a straight set win over Akgul Amanmuradova and Kimiko-Date Krumm. Sania, playing without her regular partner Elene Vesnina, combined well with the Australian and dominated the game to win 6-4, 6-4.

Sania´s performance in the doubles is likely too boost her rankings keeping her in line with Olympic qualification.

Sania is looking at retaining her position in the top 10 doubles rankings which would ensure her qualification for the Olympics.

The All India Tennis Association (AITA) will decide the doubles pairing for the Olympics and Mahesh Bhupathi is likely to get the nod ahead of Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna.

Earlier in the day, Slovakia´s Daniela Hantuchova successfully retained her singles title after beating fourth seed Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-3.