The top seeds in the WTA Finals doubles event, Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza, advanced to the championship match after defeating Yung-Jan and Hao-Ching Chan, the sister team from Taiwan, 6-4, 6-2, after being down a break in the first set. Their press conference transcript, provided below in full, is courtesy of FastScripts by ASAP Sports.
Question: Talk a little bit about the match today, especially the first set down 1‑3, and then…
MARTINA HINGIS: You know, like I said earlier, even on court already I felt very fortunate to have Sania on my side because she’s an incredible positive person.
You know, like when I get myself down ‑‑ in the last couple days I wasn’t feeling ‑‑ I’m not really a morning person, so she was out there and kept fighting and kept keeping me up there. That’s why we were able to come back.
Once I felt better, that’s when everything start to click. They’re a great team, so they’ve always come out strong in the past six matches that we played them.
So we were saying, like we were almost like in our dreams we already know how to play them and they know us.
Were there any differences after 1‑3 strategically? Did you position yourself differently?
SANIA MIRZA: I mean, we were a bit unlucky to get broken on her serve. Like we had a bunch of chances to go up 2‑1. Then when you’re up 2‑1 it’s different because there is more pressure on the other person’s serve. We were a bit unlucky not to win that game. But they returned well. All credit to them.
Besides that, I mean, we come with a strategy against them. It’s very different to what we played against, say, players like yesterday who have more power, different strategy.
We kind of to have stick to our guns, stick to what we have planned. We have trust our abilities. That’s what really takes us through a lot of the times, is that trust in each other’s ability. We knew sooner or later at some point we were going to break. So that happened at 3‑2, great.
If it didn’t happen, we would still keep fighting, and hopefully happen at 5‑3 or whatever.
(No microphone.)
SANIA MIRZA: Well, we’re going to look at the TV for sure, but I don’t really think we have a preference. They are both very tough teams. We’ve never played the Spanish team before together. I’ve played them separately. The other team we just played once, which was a couple of days ago.
It’s a good position to be in, like I said on court, too. Of course it’s great to sit back and know that they have to fight it out. You can take popcorn and probably just watch that match.
For me, there is no preference.
MARTINA HINGIS: No, neither. Because, like I said, depends on Muguruza, if she wins and if we even play like before or after the finals. I mean, either or, I think they’re both very good teams. The one, like I said, we played only once before two days ago.
The other Sania has experience to play the Spanish duo. I’ve never played them ever like in this combo. It will be an interesting matchup. The better shall win.
Obviously you guys started in March together. On the court you show such an innate understanding of each other’s game. Talk a bit about how that came about. Was it very natural or was it a lot of work?
SANIA MIRZA: Yeah, I mean, for the most part, yeah, think it was pretty natural. I think it’s fair to say we’ve known each other for fairly long, but fair to say we weren’t probably friends. We were people who played against each other and few we knew each other, respected each other.
Out of that respect came friendship, and out of that friendship obviously came the results. There are so many things that went hand in hand. Of course today I can say that we’re probably very close off the court as well.
But I think in a lot of the tough moments, that chemistry takes you through, that trust that we have in each other off the court as well. For me, the opportunity to play with her, and the same for her, for both of us, we just feel like we complement each other great on the court.
When you complement each other off the court a well, I think that’s when you make a deadly combination. I truly believe that a lot of the time we trust each other and go through a lot of tough times.
MARTINA HINGIS: I mean, definitely today when we didn’t ‑‑ I mean, we were down. We were able to put our abilities together and lift it a notch just to be more involved and do more things and create opportunities.
That definitely is experience in the last eight months, but because also we know each other so well we know we can trust each our shots and go for it. I don’t think many people have these opportunities.
SANIA MIRZA: But also I think how we react to situations we know. Like I know how she reacts to morning, and she knows how I react to a situation when I’m not feeling great. I think when you know that about each other you can help each other out. That’s what doubles is about, and any sport where you have two people. It’s the communication.
We try and keep it ‑‑ we leave it out there. We try and be honest as we can with each other how we’re feeling. I mean, if I’m feeling like crap, I’m like, ‘I’m not feeling great. Can you do something?’ She does the same thing.
That’s really how, and we try and communicate as much as possible.
How was the first practice?
SANIA MIRZA: Terrible.
MARTINA HINGIS: Worst practice in the world. It was windy and stormy in Doha and we got our ass kicked.
SANIA MIRZA: It was the worst. We lost to a couple of players. I don’t want to name them. We tried to play a set, and I think we won two games in like 11 games.
We came off the court and he we’re like, Yeah, I think it was really windy. (Laughter.) Oh, it is just windy. It was the wind. It can’t be us.
MARTINA HINGIS: But were always saying you had like the worst practice with Cara [Black] before.
SANIA MIRZA: I am not a practice champion. I mean, when was the last time you won practice? Like I don’t remember ever winning practice. We don’t win practice.
MARTINA HINGIS: We did okay. It’s just we can’t keep it for like the whole time.
SANIA MIRZA: It’s so tough to focus for both of us, and I think that matches as well. We don’t freak out. Oh, my God, we didn’t win a set. You know, doesn’t matter.
(No microphone.)
SANIA MIRZA: Actually, we didn’t decide to play then. We practiced, and it was before the Doha tournament, and we were going to take a call, both of us, after Doha.
I ended up playing the final there, and she thought that I was going to stick to my partner at the time. Due to circumstances, didn’t happen and we came together at the end of the week.
So we just had that one practice and then we went to Indian Wells and we practiced a couple days. It got better because it couldn’t get worse after that practice. And then, yeah, we won three in a row.
Would you call yourself a big‑match team? You have played nine finals, three titles. [Ed. note: While the team has played in nine finals, they’ve actually won eight of them.] Can you both talk about that?
MARTINA HINGIS: Well definitely more and more. I mean, we created opportunities. Like I said, even the first even the first two, three matches, I mean, sometimes you have struggles when you don’t know the opponents and everything, don’t know each other. But we found solutions, and that’s what makes a strong team.
Now we’ve been playing very solidly like against the lower‑ranked teams, and then we’ve played the Chan sisters like seven time in the last seven or eight ‑‑
SANIA MIRZA: Six times.
MARTINA HINGIS: ‑‑ events. So it’s like you know what to expect from them and they know what to expect from us. It’s just like making that extra ‑‑ we made each other also better.
And then pushing with the other teams and trying to just keep it in matches keep it going. We still had to prove ourselves. I mean, we won the three and then maybe the clay court season is not our best surface.
Then it clicked back in Wimbledon. That was an incredible victory in the finals being down. That was when it all start to happen, you know, that we knew we can win big events, like Grand Slams. Yeah.
Hingis, just a quick word on Muguruza. You’re the last player to do the double in a WTA Final in the year 2000.
MARTINA HINGIS: I mean, she’s a great player. I mean, especially how much she’s improved in this season. You know, making Wimbledon finals and the last two months have been great. Also now teaming up with her new coach.
Yeah, she’s a player that constantly got better and better in the last two years. Everybody talked about her, that she can be the next big thing. Now she’s there, No. 3 or 4 in the world, whatever she’s going to be after this event.
But, yeah, always expected it. Everyone had an eye on her. No, like she’s strong. She’s still young. At 22 you can still play both. It’s not a problem. Even later on I don’t think it’s such a ‑‑ like they look at it positive also. It’s not a ‑‑ it shouldn’t be a struggle.
I mean, you see that she got so much confidence also in her singles, and it’s helping her because she’s coming in and trying to take charge at the net as well. She’s not scared of coming in. I think that is thanks to the doubles as well.
Video: Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza press conference – WTA Finals, Oct. 31, 2015
video by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine
Photos: Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza d. Yung-Jan and Hao-Ching Chan, 6-4, 6-2 – WTA Finals doubles semifinals, Oct. 31, 2015
all photos by Yuan-Kwan Chan / Meniscus Magazine
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