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Doubles Masters
Date: 8 January 2010
The world's top combination - Zimbabwean Cara Black and American Liezel Huber - needed all their collective experience to reach the doubles final at the ASB Classic.
In what began as a procession, they were eventually forced to survive a spirited comeback from singles specialists Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone of Italy, 6-1, 5-7 10-8.
Black and Huber broke service twice in the first set - their opponents were already five games down before they finally held - then snatched the early impetus to go 4-1 up in the second.
But the Italians, perhaps still regrouping after facing each other in the singles semis only an hour before, weren''''t done. They chipped away at Huber''''s serve, breaking it in the sixth game of the set, survived match points at 5-4, then broke Huber again to draw level.
Pennetta and Schiavone broke Black to claim the set, but were always playing catch-up in the match tiebreak after they lost the opening point on Schiavone''''s serve.
In the end, the doubles instincts of Black and Huber were greater than the individual brilliance of their rivals. They now face South African Natalie Grandin and American Laura Granville in the KIA Motors Doubles final, scheduled for 1pm Saturday.
