Soares, Mirza Capture Mixed Doubles Title
Top-seeded Bruno Soares and Sania Mirza won the US Open mixed doubles title on Friday, defeating Santiago Gonzalez and American Abigail Spears 6-1, 2-6, 11-9.
It is the second career mixed doubles title at Flushing Meadows for Soares and his first with Mirza.
“I keep getting the right partners I guess,” said Soares. “Two years from now Sania is going to be in the semis in singles, I guess, like Makarova is this year. I love playing out here, playing in the States. New York is a great city and it’s a lot of fun to be here.”
After the two teams exchanged lopsided set wins, the match was forced into a tiebreak. Soares and Mirza held a 9-4 advantage in the tiebreak before Gonzalez and Spears stormed back to even things up. After a Spears backhand went long, the duo had a sixth chance at match point, and didn’t squander the opportunity as another Spears backhand went long to give the title to the top seeds.
“We got an early lead and started playing aggressive. Got back to our game,” said Soares. “Until 9-4. Then struggled a little bit, few points here and there. But again, I mean, it’s not easy to win. It’s a slam. But at 9-all we came out, we kept fighting positive, and played our game. In the end it worked out.”
Soares won his first mixed doubles title at the US Open with current singles semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova of Russia. Because of Makarova’s new-found success in singles since partnering with Soares, Mirza was asked about her chances of reaching a singles semifinal.
“If I make a comeback,” she said. “Then maybe you’ll see me in the semis two years from now.”
With the win, the two will get to split $150,000 worth of prize money, and plan to play together at the next Grand Slam, the 2015 Australian Open.
