India's Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis battled past defending champions Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova to not only reach the semi-finals of the WTA Family Circle Cup but also secure the top place in the team rankings in the 'Road To Singapore'.
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair, which is on a roll since joining forces recently, won 7-5, 4-6, 13-11 following intense tennis during a contest that lasted an hour and 41 minutes.
They staved off a match point when they were down 9-10 in the Super Tie Break as they edged out the Spanish-Kazakhstani combo.
This win takes Sania and Hingis to number one in the team rankings for the Road to Singapore, where the top-eight pairs play in the season-ending finale.
If they end up winning the title, Sania will become first Indian to be ranked world number one in women's tennis.
"We were so happy with the crowd support tonight. We've had great support everywhere we've gone, but here especially they love doubles, and they always come out in big numbers," Sania said.
Hingis praised the rivals saying, "They played really well. They were defending champions here, so we knew we had to come out with our best tennis. 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 said.
"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.
When the new Road To Singapore doubles leaderboard is released on Monday, Sania and Hingis will overtake Australian Open champions Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova (currently No.2) and Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina (currently No.1).
"It's still a long year, but I think if you start like this you'll give yourself more chances to qualify. The sooner you get it, you won't be stressed, and then you'll play freely for Singapore."
