Sania Mirza, Barbora Strycova enter Apia International final

New Delhi: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her new doubles partner Barbora Strycova made a strong statement ahead of season opening Grand Slam by entering the finals of the WTA Apia International in Sydney on Thursday.

The top-seeded Indo-Czech pair dismissed America's Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova from Kazakhstan in straight sets. The 6-1, 6-2 win came in just 51 minutes as the fourth seeds lost two serves each in each set.

Mirza and Strycova will play Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who defeated Andreja Klepac and Martinez Sanchez 6-3 6-4 in the their semifinal.

Last week, Mirza won season's first title in Brisbane with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, but ended up losing her world number one rank to the American.

Mirza will enter Australian Open, which starts on Monday, as a defending champion in women's doubles event. Last year, she won the title with Swiss legend Martina Hingis.

They ended the super-successful partnership last August.