Heartbreak: Sania-Dodig falter at final hurdle

The second seeded Indo-Croatian pair of Sania Mirza and Ivan Dodig lost their second major final when were defeated by the unseeded pair of American Abigail Spears and Colombian Juan Sebastian Cabal 2-6, 4-6 in the Australian Open final at the Rod Laver Arena on Sunday.

Sania-Dodig were completely outplayed by the American-Colombian pair as the second seeds made too many unforced errors to let the game slip through. Spears-Cabal dominated the entire game and didn't let the pressure of the final get to them.

Mirza-Dodig had previously lost the French Open 2016 final to the Indo-Swiss pair of Leander Paes and Martina Hingis.

The Indo-Croatian pair remained on the backfoot from the beginning of the game getting broken in their very first service game of the match. With Dodig making a double fault right at the start, the unseeded pair got an easy break point. They next went on to win their own service game to lead the set 2-0.

Sania Mirza also got broken in third game of the set as Cabal displayed some wonderful play at the net. Despite initially leading 30-0, the Indian and the Croat let the unseeded pair crawl back into the game and Spears-Cabal punished them for that.

Sania-Dodig then held their respective serves to stretch the game but Spears-Cabal proved to be too strong for the second seeded. The Indo-Croatian pair came back strongly in the second set winning their first serve and breaking Cabal in the next game to take a good 2-0 lead in the set.

After a strong beginning, Sania-Dodig faultered yet again making double faults and unforced errors - helping the American-Colombian take over once more.

The American-Colombian pair managed to break Sania's serve in the seventh game and confidentally made their way to their maiden win together.