Harare — THEY were perfect in Auckland, New Zealand, a fortnight ago and perfect in Sydney, Australia, during the just-ended week.

Zimbabwean women's tennis star Cara Black and her American partner Liezel Huber won their second straight doubles title of the year at the Medibank Sydney International tournament on Saturday.

The top seeds and co-world number ones sent another strong message that they will once again be the team to beat on the road this year when they outlasted Italy's Tathiana Garbin and Russian Nadia Petrova 6-1, 3-6, 10-3 (match tie-break) in the final.

They received US$31 000 for their efforts.

Black and Huber won the Sydney International doubles title barely a week after clinching another crown at the season-opening ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand.

Black and Huber went 4-0 to win in Auckland and 4-0 to win in Sydney; this was their 29th title together on the Tour.

As individuals, Black has now won 53 women's doubles titles since she turned professional in January 1998 while Huber has 41 under her belt.

They picked up a cheque for US$11 000 for winning in Auckland where they overcame Natalie Grandin of South Africa and Laura Granville of the United States 7-6 (4), 6-2 in the final.

This means that Black and Huber have now made US$42 000 as a team during the first month of the new year.

During last week in New South Wales, Black and Huber defeated in the first round on Monday the all-Russian team of Dinara Safina and Maria Kirilenko 6-2, 6-3 and in the quarter-finals on Wednesday they stopped the Australian-Russian pairing of Anastasia Rodionova and Vera Dushevina 6-3, 4-6, 10-8.

In the semi-finals during last Thursday's night session, the Zimbabwean-American pairing was even more convincing, as they defeated the all-American team of Abigail Spears and Laura Granville 6-1, 6-1.

In that match, Black and Huber played a high level of tennis and left no opportunity to their opponents to fully play their game.

In Saturday's final, the world's best women's doubles team won over Petrova and Garbin.

After a high level first set, the outsider team could come back by being more aggressive, but even after the second set's loss, Black and Huber could take the advantage quite easily in match tie-break, to lead it from the beginning and conclude on their first match point.

These two back-to-back victories in New Zealand and Sydney are the best way for the world's best team to prepare for this week's Australian Open.

In fact, Black and Huber are now heading to Melbourne, Australia, for the first Grand Slam of the year - the Australian Open - oozing with confidence after their latest feat in Sydney.

"We're really excited and pumped up about winning our first two tournaments of the year.

"Now we're just looking forward to going to the Australian Open because we can't ask for any better preparation. We'll have the day off tomorrow (yesterday) and enjoy the win. I think we'll do a bit of shopping and relax," Black told reporters after Saturday's victory in Sydney. At this week's Australian Open in Melbourne, Black and Huber are the top seeds and they will open their campaign against the unseeded German pair of Tatjana Malek and Andrea Petkovic.

And if Black and Huber manage to negotiate their way past the Germans, they will meet the winners of the other opening round featuring Romanians Alexandra Dulgheru and Edina Gallovits and the pair of American Carly Gullickson and Vladimira Uhlirova of the Czech Republic.

Both teams are unseeded.