DOHA, Dec 9: Taiwan clinched an early Saturday morning gold medal by exploiting India's weakest link to lift the Asian Games women's tennis team title here.

Chuang Chia Jung and Hsieh Su Wei beat Sania Mirza and Shikha Uberoi 7-6, 6-1 in a deciding doubles rubber after a marathon gold medal match which had started 14 hours earlier and had been held up twice by rain.

The Taiwanese duo made a point of piling the pressure on Uberoi and avoiding Sania.

Sania had levelled the final for India with a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 win over Chuang in her singles rubber.

But the 20-year-old was quickly back on court shortly before midnight to play the doubles and the long day eventually told as she was the one who was broken first in the opening game of a one-sided second set.

India had to settle for silver while Uzbekistan and Japan won bronze.—AFP