Romanian-Indian duo win doubles title in New Haven

Romanian tennis player Monica Niculescu and her Indian teammate Sania Mirza won the Connecticut Open doubles title in New Haven. In the final, the Niculescu/Mirza duo beat the team made of Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko and Taiwan’s Chia-Jung Chuang 7-5, 6-4. The last time Mirza and Niculescu partnered up was six years ago, in 2010, when they reached the quarterfinals at the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati. They played that one tournament together, but the two have remained friends ever since. Last week, the Romanian asked Mirza to team up again, and the Indian tennis player accepted. Connecticut Open took place in New Haven, U.S. between August 21 and August 27. The tournament offered total money prizes of almost USD 696,000. Monica Niculescu ranks 15th in doubles ranking of best female tennis players in the world, and 58th in the singles ranking. Sania Mirza is number one in the doubles ranking. Niculescu and Mirza will not play together at the US Open, which starts on August 29. Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com (Photo source: Connecticut Open presented by United Technologies on Facebook)