Indian tennis pro Sania Mirza is convinced that the pairing of Martina Hingis and Roger Federer will be the favourites to win the gold medal in the mixed doubles tennis event in the 2016 Rio Olympics.

"They're obviously going to be the favourites for gold and I say that with all due respect to my partnership with whoever I'm playing with and everyone else. On paper, they're probably going to be the best team and the one that everyone is going to go for in terms of the gold medal,” Mirza told Khaleej Times.

Federer, currently ranked World No. 3 in the men’s singles, recently confirmed that he’s returning to play in next year’s summer games and will be partnering with former women’s singles World No. 1 Hingis in Rio, Brazil.

The pair had a short partnership as they played together in a mixed doubles event in 2001 at the Hopman Cup in Australia, where Switzerland won in the final against the United States.

Federer, who holds the record for most Grand Slam titles in the men’s singles competition with 17 majors championships, has won two Olympic medals: the silver medal in the singles event at the 2012 London Olympics and the gold medal in the doubles event with Stan Wawrinka at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Hingis has five Grand Slam singles titles in her career but has retired from singles play and is currently active in the doubles events. She won five titles in Grand Slam events in mixed doubles and women’s doubles in 2015.

Meanwhile, although Mirza has no partner yet for the Olympic Games in Rio, she admitted that India’s target is also the gold medal.

"That's not going to stop us from trying to go for the gold ourselves, but I would think it would be a lot of fun to play against them at any point and, hopefully, in the final,” Mirza added.

Mirza and Hingis partnered in the women's doubles events of the 2015 Wimbledon Championships and 2015 US Open and won the titles in both tournaments.

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