Sania-Huber fail to get past final hurdle at Amelia Islands

Amelia Islands, Florida Apr 10 (UNI) Sania Mirza's hopes of winning her second doubles title this year were dashed when she and her South African partner Liezel Huber were outplayed 2-6, 4-6 by the Japanese-Slovenian pair of Shinobu Asagoe and Katarina Srebotnik in the doubles final of 600,000-dollar Bausch and Lomb tennis championship here.

Sania and Huber failed to replicate their semifinal form, which saw them upset second seeded US-Spanish pair of Meghann Shaughnessy and Virginia Ruano Pascual.

Asagoe and Srebotnik, who made it to the last stage after their opponents -- the Czech-Italian pair of Kveta Peschke and Francesca Schiavone -- conceded the semifinals in the third set, completely dominated the first set and broke the Indo-South African pair four times before finishing it off in 23 minutes.

The Japanese-Slovenian pair hit 28 winners, compared to 17 by Sania and Huber, to take the set 6-2.

The second set, which lasted 53 minutes, was more of a fighting affair as Sania and Huber tried putting up some resistance. They even managed to break their rivals twice but it was too little too late as Asagoe and Srebotnik had seized the momentum by then.

The Japanese-Slovenian pair broke their rivals thrice and once again hit more winners to seal the set 6-4 and take the honours.

Sania and Huber had earlier won the tier III Bangalore Open this year.

The loss ended Sania's hopes of winning the title after being knocked out in the first round of the singles competition by American Lisa Raymond.

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