Sania-Martina maintain hot streak in Charleston

Charleston: Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis beat Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan to reach the Family Circle Cup tennis tournament’s semi-finals.

The No. 1-seeded Hingis and Mirza battled Medina Garrigues and Shvedova for an hour and 41 minutes for a 7-5, 4-6, 13-11 victory here on Friday, fighting off a match point down 10-9 in the match tiebreaker and needing six match points of their own to edge the Spanish-Kazakhstani defending champions.

“They played really well — they were defending champions here, so we knew we had to come out with our best tennis,” Hingis said after the match.

“They knew how to play against us. They served well and were good from the baseline. We really had to keep our energy up, be solid and come up with the shots when we needed to,” she added.

“They were coming up with a lot of great shots on the deciding points, which was different than a lot of the other teams we’ve been playing recently. They really did well in those important points.”

The Family Circle Cup crowds loved every up and down in the match — and Mirza was thrilled about it.

“We were so happy with the crowd support tonight,” she said.

“We’ve had great support everywhere we’ve gone, but here especially they love doubles, and they always come out in big numbers.”