French Open: Saina in her maiden doubles final

India’s Sania Mirza qualified for her maiden Grand Slam doubles final as she partnered Russian Elena Vesnina to beat American duo of Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond in a thrilling three-setter in the semifinals of the French Open here Wednesday.

Sania and Vesnina, seeded seventh, beat the fourth seeded American pair 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in 105 minute semifinal contest at the Roland Garros.

In the final, the Indo-Russian combo will face the unseeded Czech duo of Andrea Hlavackova and Lucie Hradecka.

The Czech pair beat third seeded pair of Vania King of United States and Yaroslava Shvedova of Kazakhstan 6-3, 6-3 in another semifinal.

This is Sania’s third Grand Slam final appearance in her career – the first two being in the mixed doubles in the Australian Open.