Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis won womens doubles in Miami Open

Sania Mirza achieved yet another career milestone by capturing her 25th WTA doubles title as the Indian continued her dream start with Martina Hingis to win the Miami Open trophy, here on Sunday.

The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair overcame a sluggish start to take the title with a 7-5, 6-1 scoreline against second-seeded Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina.

Sania and Hingis were trailing 2-5 in the opening set but regrouped and turned the tables on their fierce opponents by reeling off eight games in a row.

They had beaten the same Russian duo at Indian Wells to win their first title together.

It has been an absolute dream start for Sania and Hingis as they are yet to lose a set since they began their partnership.

“We just tried to keep telling each other to enjoy the struggle. Last week everything came very, very easily to us — we didn’t lose more than four games in a set.

“Over here we were down, and we were panicking. It was like, ‘Oh my God, we’re not playing well.’ We just weren’t used to that,” Sania said after the match.

Tips from Imran Mirza

Hingis credited the win to tips provided by Sania’s farther Imran Mirza during the match.

“Today the coaching really turned it around — your dad came on court,” Hingis said to Sania.

“The most important thing is that we never stopped believing we’re a great team. They played a great set to get us to that position, 5-2 down. Then we just tried to stay in there and get our chances. We just built on every point, which is what we did well last week too,” the Swiss great, who now has 43 doubles titles, said.

With this win, Sania and Hingis now will move to No. 3 from nine in the Road To Singapore doubles leaderboard.

She took a giant leap towards becoming world No. 1 player in the doubles by pocketing 1000 ranking points, following her stupendous title win in the Miami Open.

Sania’s ranking remained at number three but she closed the gap to just 145 points with the world No. 1 Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, who both have 7640 points each.

Vettle won First time for Ferarri in Malaysian GP

Sebastian Vettel stunned Mercedes' world champion Lewis Hamilton on Sunday with an audacious Malaysian Grand Prix victory which set the Formula One season alight

The Ferrari man took advantage of an early safety car as he hit the front and held off Hamilton and Nico Rosberg after pitting only twice, compared to three for the Mercedes pair.

The four-time world champion now has 40 career wins but it is his first with Ferrari, and breaks a dry spell stretching back to his last victory with Red Bull in 2013.

Few of his wins can have been as satisfying. He shattered assumptions of Mercedes' unassailable superiority in 2015, after they dominated the season-opener in Australia.

"Fantastico, fantastico!" he screamed down the radio in Italian. "Yes boys, can you hear me? Thank you, thank you. Forza Ferrari!"

Further back, there were also celebrations for Max Verstappen as the 17-year-old finished seventh, becoming the youngest points-scorer in Formula One history.

Hamilton got away smoothly from pole and Vettel aggressively defended second from a charging Rosberg, helped by a nudge against the Mercedes as they battled round the first corner.

Kimi Raikkonen and Pastor Maldonado were quickly hit by punctures, and Sauber's Marcus Ericsson lasted just three laps before he spun off on Turn 1, prompting the safety car.

Vettel chose not to follow Hamilton into the pits during the intervention and had built up a healthy lead by the time the Briton weaved from sixth to second by lap 11.

- 'Don't talk to me!' -

When Vettel finally pitted after lap 17, he re-emerged behind the two Mercedes but he set the day's fastest lap so far and scorched past his fellow German at the end of lap 21.

Vettel was on Hamilton's tailpipe when the Briton made his second stop at the end of lap 25, dropping back behind the Ferrari driver and Rosberg.

Rosberg pitted to promote Hamilton to second, and the Briton floored it with a pair of fastest laps as he set about whittling away Vettel's big lead of more than 20 seconds.

Behind them, Daniil Kvyat was lucky to resume unscathed when he spun under pressure, and Romain Grosjean also went off-piste when he clipped Jenson Button's front wheel.

Vettel and then Hamilton pitted on consecutive laps and the Briton complained "This is the wrong tyre!"as he resumed on the hard compound.

"I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing!" he shouted, after hearing perplexing chatter on the radio which appeared to suggest a third stop.

With 14 laps and a gap of 14 seconds, the chase was tense and Hamilton snapped: "Hey man, don't talk to me through the corners!" as Mercedes tried to update him over the radio.

But Hamilton, who won the season-opener in Australia, was unable to catch Vettel as the German claimed Ferrari's first win since Spain 2013 by a gap of 8.5 seconds.

Raikkonen was fourth for Ferrari, ahead of the Williams cars of Valtteri Bottas and Felipe Massa. Young Verstappen finished a brilliant seventh in just his second drive.

But there was more woe for former superpower McLaren as ex-world champions Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button were both forced to retire.

Lewis Hamilton won Austrian GP 2015

Lewis Hamilton’s stroll in Albert Park was an imperious dismissal of his team-mate Nico Rosberg’s Formula One aspirations. Hamilton is attempting to become the first British driver to win back-to-back titles and his 34th GP victory – his first in the Australian Grand Prix since 2008 – suggested he will win a third championship with something to spare, which was hardly the case with his previous two.

He is driving the strongest car out there and when he looks at his only serious rival, Rosberg, he knows that he is a whole class better. And so does Rosberg. The Mercedes made it a comfortable one-two and however much Hamilton protested, it was one of his most straightforward victories. “It really, really wasn’t,” he said. “I was right on it the whole way and at any moment if I’d have slipped, he’d have had it. We looked so far ahead but we were having our own little battle. Nico was putting pressure on me and I was controlling the gap. By no means was it easy.”

But Hamilton drove well within himself. He revealed as much when he added: “I felt comfortable. I had the pace if I needed to respond.” Quite.

Hamilton was at his most energised when he met Arnold Schwarzenegger on the podium after the race. “I am a real fan of his. So it was really, really cool.”

There were only 11 finishers with most of the casualties falling before or at the very start of the race, like little green bottles falling off the wall.

In fact that was where most of the action was as a patient crowd tried to make the most of things. The last man, Jenson Button, Hamilton’s former team-mate at troubled McLaren, was the only driver to finish the race but out of the points.

Valtteri Bottas, who had qualified for sixth place on the grid, was ruled unfit by an FIA medical delegate because of a tear in his lower back and had to withdraw. With the Manor team not taking part that reduced the official starting grid to 17 cars. But there were only 15 there at the start because Kevin Magnussen and Daniil Kvyat failed to survive their reconnaissance laps.

Magnussen came to a halt with a plume of smoke coming out of his car and Kvyat spun into the gravel with suspected transmission trouble.

There was another accident on the first lap when Pastor Maldonado’s Lotus got squeezed into the barriers following a minor collision between the Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen.

Then, on the second lap, Romain Grosjean retired with apparent mechanical failure. That meant there were only 13 cars left with the race barely started and later on Max Verstappen (Toro Rosso) and Raikkonen also dropped out.

It was a good day for the rookies, though they were betrayed by their cars. And it was a good race for Sauber after their most difficult of weeks fighting legal issues, with Felipe Nasr finishing fifth and Marcus Ericsson eighth.

For those who do not want the procession to last all year there was an impressive drive from Vettel who took the final podium place. But it was another sad day for McLaren. Button finished last and Magnussen did not even make it to the grid.

Button said afterwards: “Finishing a grand prix is not our aim and ambition in life, but this is a big step for us from what we expected but also from what we did in testing. So it’s been tough for everyone but this race has really brought everyone together and is focusing us a lot for the next race and where we hope we can bring some good improvements.”

Everyone will have to bring a lot of improvements to Barcelona when the circus comes to Europe in May. Even then it will not be enough.

Paes-Hingis win Australian Open mixed-doubles title

This is Leander Paes' seventh mixed-doubles crown.

India's Leander Paes and Swiss Martina Hingis turned back the clock to post a sensational win in the Australian Open mixed-doubles final and improve their respective Grand Slam count to 15, in Melbourne on Sunday.

The seventh seed Indo-Swiss pair played powerful tennis to serve past third seeds Daniel Nestor and Kristina Mladenovic 6-4, 6-3 in the 62-minute battle at the Rod Laver Arena.

While the 41-year-old Paes clinched his seventh mixed doubles crown, Hingis, who came out of retirement for the second time a couple of years back, collected her tenth doubles Slam apart from her five singles titles.

Paes and Hingis broke the Canadian-French pair of Nestor and Kristina once in the first set and twice in the second to put up an entertaining display.

Paes, a veteran doubles specialist, joined forces with the 34-year-old Hingis last year only to come up with a Slam title in quick time.

Hingis, who burst into the scene in 1995, thanked her idol and legend Martina Navratilova for suggesting Paes as her mixed-doubles partner.

“I am thankful to Martina (Navratilova) for getting me partner Paes. It’s incredible to be playing on the surface that I made my debut in 1995. I never imagined that 20 year’s down-the-line I would be still be playing here,” said an excited Hingis — winner of three singles Australian Open titles.

Navratilovia, who also partnered Paes to clinch the Australian Open and Wimbledon mixed—doubles crown in 2003, was in the stands to watch the tennis veterans play.

Djokovic wins Australian Open 2015

The win means Djokovic stays at World no. 1 on the next ATP rankings when they are released on Monday, with Murray moving to four from his current sixth.

Novak Djokovic may never win as many Wimbledon or U.S. Open titles as Roger Federer or as many French Open championships as Rafa Nadal but when it comes to the Australian Open the Serbian reigns supreme.

At Melbourne on Sunday, Djokovic won his fifth Australian Open crown, beating Andy Murray 7-6(5), 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-0 in an old fashioned slugfest where the pair went toe-to-toe like two prize fighters before the Serb knocked the Scotsman out.

The only man to win more Australian titles than Djokovic is Roy Emerson, who chalked up six in the 1960s when the Grand Slams were restricted to amateur players and the Australian Open was played on grass at different cities all over the country.

But in the professional era, Djokovic is the undisputed king down under, playing in five Australian Open finals and winning the lot.

“I am so privileged and honoured and grateful to be standing here as a champion for the fifth time and to be in the elite group of players with Sir Roy Emerson and Rod Laver and all the legends of our sport,” said the Serb.

“Tough luck tonight, Andy, you are a great competitor, you fight a lot and I want to congratulate your team and wish you all the best for the rest of the season,” he added.

The win means Djokovic stays at World no. 1 on the next ATP rankings when they are released on Monday, with Murray moving to four from his current sixth.

“We have put in a lot of hard work to try and get back in this position after what was a difficult year last year,” said Murray, referring to injuries that dogged his 2014 season.

Murray put Djokovic under immediate pressure with three break points in the third game of the opening set, played in cool and windy conditions on Rod Laver Arena.

But the Serb fought back to hold after an almighty 27-stroke rally and an ace.

Djokovic struck in the next game, breaking Murray to take an early 3-1 lead.

It was hard-fought tennis and the Scot worked his way back by breaking his rival on his third break point in the seventh game.

Djokovic jammed the thumb of his serving hand when he slipped chasing a low volley and needed treatment at the next changeover.

It seemed to bother him briefly only and he broke the Scot a second time before being broken back as he served for the opening set, taking it to a tiebreaker.

The top seed trailed 2-4 in the tiebreaker but then rattled off five of the next six points to claim the opening set in 72 minutes.

Undeterred, Murray broke for a 2-0 lead in the second set before Djokovic hit back with a double break as the Scot looked in trouble with Djokovic stringing together 13 straight points.

The final was then interrupted by a security scare for five minutes when political activists unfurled a banner in support of refugees.

One of them jumped on court with security guards ringing both players as at least four protestors were escorted out of the stadium.

The stoppage worked in Murray’s favour as he broke Djokovic’s service to level the set at 4-4.

The final went to a second tiebreak in which Murray prevailed 7-4 to level the hard-fought contest.

Djokovic suffered an immediate let-down, dropping his opening service in the third set, but he stormed back with a double break to edge in front two sets to one as Murray flagged.

Fired-up, the top seed then split the final set wide open, racing through the fourth set against a spent and frustrated Murray with a triple break to surge to victory.

NASA launches Earth's water observing satellite

It is on a mission to track the amount of water locked in soil, which may help residents in low-lying regions brace for floods or farmers get ready for drought conditions.

A Delta 2 rocket carrying Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) satellite was launched early Saturday from Vandenberg Air Force Base on California’s central coast.

The satellite is on a three-year mission to track the amount of water locked in soil, which may help residents in low-lying regions brace for floods or farmers get ready for drought conditions.

NASA launch manager Tim Dunn said there were zero launch problems with the rocket, calling the Delta 2 a “workhorse.”

Once the satellite reaches the desired orbit 430 miles or 692 kilometers high, engineers will spend two weeks checking out the two instruments, which will measure moisture in the soil every several days to produce high-resolution global maps.

Scientists hope data collected by the satellite, the latest to join NASA’s Earth—orbiting fleet, will improve flood forecasts and drought monitoring.

At a news conference broadcast online, SMAP mission project manager Kent Kellogg said the launch went off without a hitch.

“This data will benefit not only scientists seeking a better understanding of our planet, climate and environment ... it’s a boon for emergency planners and policy makers,” said Geoffery Yoder, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for programs.

Currently, drought maps and flash flood guidance issued by the federal government are based on computer modeling. SMAP will take real-time measurements that can be incorporated into forecasts, said Dara Entekhabi, mission science team leader from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Besides the satellite, the rocket also carried three research nanosatellites for JPL, Montana State University and California Polytechnic State University. More than 100 university students took part in designing and building the tiny satellites known as CubeSats.

Britain's missing spacecraft found on Mars

Britain's infamous "Beagle 2" spacecraft has been found on Mars -- 11 years after it went missing searching for extraterrestrial life.

Britain's infamous "Beagle 2" spacecraft, once dubbed "a heroic failure" by the nation's Astronomer Royal, has been found on Mars -- 11 years after it went missing searching for extraterrestrial life.

Beagle 2, part of the European Space Agency's Mars Express mission, had been due to land on Mars on Christmas Day 2003, but went missing on December 19, 2003. Until now, nothing had been heard from it since then.

But in an announcement made to a packed news conference at London's Royal Society scientific institution on Friday, space experts said the tiny Mars lander has been found on the surface of the red planet.

"Beagle 2 is no longer lost," said David Parker, chief executive of the UK Space Agency. He said scientists now had "good evidence" that the spacecraft successfully landed on Mars on the date it was due -- December 25, 2003 -- but had only partially deployed.

"This find shows that the entry, descent and landing sequence for Beagle 2 worked and the lander did successfully touch down on Mars on Christmas Day 2003," the UK space agency said in a statement.

Beagle 2 -- which measures less than 2 metres across -- was named after the ship Charles Darwin sailed when he formulated his theory of evolution. It was built by British scientists for about 50 million pounds ($85 million).

The plan was for it to report back from the Mars' surface using instruments designed to help search for signs of life, but nothing was heard after it was dropped off to make its landing.

"We were left with a mystery, a mystery that has continued to this day," Parker told Friday's news conference.

Martin Rees, Britain's Astronomer Royal, last year praised Beagle 2 and its eccentric creator Colin Pillinge, who had died at the age of 70.

"This was a failure, but a heroic failure," Rees said.

Experts say part of Beagle 2's legacy is its miniaturised technology, some of which is being provided for the ExoMars 2018 rover and being proposed for other future space missions.

Wawrinka retains Chennai Open title 2015

The top-4 in world tennis is a tough place to break into. If you do, it’s an even tougher place to stay at; more so when you are not Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic or Andy Murray.

After finishing at No.4 last year, it was hence important for Stan Wawrinka to not start this season on the wrong foot. A backslide into the path of a bunch of emerging youngsters would hardly be an auspicious beginning, especially after a breakout 2014.

With his third Aircel Chennai Open title following a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Slovene Aljaz Bedene on Sunday, Wawrinka ensured that the year started on the best possible note.

“A perfect week for me,” was how he described it after the final. “Really happy with my level [of play]. It’s tough to win an ATP title. The last one I won was in April last year. So it feels great.”

For all that Wawrinka did last year, not much suggested that he was comfortable in the company of the elite.

There was a constant search for consistency but in the end it was futile.

Even better this year

But, based on the past week’s form in Chennai, one can safely say that he has hit a patch which is a notch above his 2014 form. Like last year, he romped home without conceding a set, but without any of the jitters and nerves.

One of the noteworthy things about Sunday’s final was the way Wawrinka played the big points.

In each of his five service games in the first set, Bedene had him at 30-30. But every time he came up with a big serve.

So high was his confidence that, unlike Bedene’s earlier opponents who relentlessly attacked his backhand, Wawrinka routinely hit to the Slovene’s forehand.

Precision

But such was the precision and work on the ball that it was almost always a yard away from Bedene’s strike zone.

Wawrinka needed just two breaks of serve, one in the sixth game of the first set and the other in the seventh game of the second, to canter to victory, even as Bedene did not earn a single break-point.

“He was really good,” said Bedene. “Unfortunately, I was a bit tired. I didn’t hit the ball clean either.”

“But I am satisfied with my performance over this week. I was really excited as it was my first final. I couldn’t sleep yesterday. But I think I’ll get used to it,” he said with a laugh.

When Wawrinka won in 2014, his narrative was one of novelty.

But, with time and performance grows expectations, and he will undoubtedly feel the pressure as the defending Australian Open champion.

How the Swiss handles it will be known over the next few weeks, but he has certainly got the start he desired.

Later, Leander Paes lost his first Chennai Open final in seven appearances in the title round, as he and Raven Klaasen went down 6-3, 7-6 (4) to Jonathan Marray and Yen-Hsun Lu.

The results:

Finals: Stan Wawrinka (Sui) bt Aljaz Bedene (Slo) 6-3, 6-4.

Doubles: Yen-Hsun Lu & Jonathan Marray (Gbr) bt Leander Paes (Ind) & Raven Klaasen (Rsa) 6-3, 7-6(4).