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Sania-Martina ousted from Eastbourne semis
Eastbourne (England): Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis’s Wimbledon preparations were on Friday cut short when the Indo-Swiss tennis pair was ousted from the $731,000 Eastbourne International after losing their women’s doubles semifinal match in straight sets here.
French-Slovenian combine Caroline Garcia and Katarina Srebotnik bettered the top seeds winning 7-5, 6-4 in an hour and 22 minutes at the Devonshire Park Lawn Tennis Club. The fourth seeds exacted revenge for their only previous meeting when Sania and Martina won on the clay courts of Rome in May.
Caroline and Katarina won the match with five break of serves — two more than their top seeded opponents.
Both pairs were quite jittery when it came to serves as the match saw a total of 11 double faults — with Sania and Martina faulting six times.
Overall, the fourth seeds won 69 of 129 points played in the match which was enough to propel them into the summit clash.
The Eastbourne International is the last women’s warm-up event ahead of Wimbledon, the lone grass court tennis Major tournament.
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Sunil Gavaskar gives his opinion of GT allrounder Rahul Tewatia
The left-handed batsman from Haryana is garnering praise from all quarters for the way he’s finishing games regularly in the most exciting IPL season.
Gavaskar reckons Tewatia’s whirlwind knock in Sharjah (in IPL 2020) where he smashed West Indies pacer Sheldon Cottrell for five sixes in an over, gave him the confidence that he belongs to the big stage.
Speaking on Cricket Live on Star Sports, Gavaskar said, “That assault on Sheldon Cottrell in Sharjah gave him the belief to do the impossible and the confidence that he belongs here. We saw the impossible (he did with the bat) the other day as well. There’s no twitching or touching the pads (which shows a batter’s nervousness) when he bats in the death overs. He just waits for the ball to be delivered and plays his shots. He’s got all the shots in the book, but most importantly his temperament to stay cool in a crisis is brilliant.”
Gavaskar has also nicknamed the 28-year-old cricketer the ‘ice-man’ and lauded Tewatia’s ability to remain unruffled during the tense moments.