The Hindu : Sport : Sania Mirza enters quarterfinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 04, 2007
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Sport

Sania Mirza enters quarterfinals

Venus Williams too good for Vania King

— PHOTO: AFP

SURVIVING A SCARE: Sania Mirza overcame Casey Dellacqua in the second round of the Japan Open on Wednesday.

TOKYO: Second seed Sania Mirza survived a scare from Australian Casey Dellacqua before beating her in a keenly-contested three-setter to advance to the quarterfinals of $ 175,000 Japan Open tennis tournament on Wednesday.

Sania came through 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 after a few nervous moments in her second round match of the tier III WTA event.

After splitting the first two sets, Sania and Dellacqua played out an engrossing decider in which the Indian ace came out trumps to advance to the last eight.

However, Sania had to stave off stiff resistance from the 84th-ranked Australian in the final set.

The 20-year-old Indian rallied from being two service breaks down — in the first and fifth game — to go 4-3 up with a couple of fiery aces.

Dellacqua held her serve to make it 4-4 but lost the plot from there on and was broken in the 10th game as Sania clinched the contest after the Australian hit a forehand out.

Sania said her experience of playing at the top helped her turn the tide in her favour in the tense battle.

In another women’s match, Venus Williams barely worked up a sweat. Williams, the reigning Wimbledon champion, had no trouble with fellow American Vania King, strolling to a 6-0, 6-4 victory.

In the men’s singles, top seed David Ferrer beat South African Wesley Moodie 7-6, 6-2 to reach the last 16.

The results: At Tokyo: Japan Open: Women: Second round: Sania Mirza bt Casey Dellacqua 6-4, 3-6, 6-4; Klara Zakopalova bt Urszula Radwanska 6-2, 3-6, 6-2; Venus Williams bt Vania King 6-0, 6-4; Caroline Wozniacki bt Yuan Meng 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-1; Flavia Pennetta bt Abigail Spears 6-4, 7-6(2); Camille Pin bt Jelena Kostanic Tosic 6-1, 6-0; Alicia Molik bt Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 6-0; Virginie Razzano bt Elena Baltacha 6-2, 6-2.

Men: Second round: Thomas Johansson bt Justin Gimelstob 6-4, 6-4; Feliciano Lopez bt Robert Kendrick 6-2, 6-4; Michael Russell bt Marin Cilic 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-1; Dmitry Tursunov bt Paul Capdeville 6-4, 6-3; Rainer Schuettler bt Frank Dancevic 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Ivo Karlovic bt Benjamin Becker 6-4, 6-3; Vincent Spadea bt Sergio Roitman 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(7); David Ferrer bt Wesley Moodie 7-6(5), 6-2; Fernando Verdasco bt Mischa Zverev 6-3, 6-2; Boris Pashanski bt Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Lleyton Hewitt bt Luka Gregorc 6-3, 6-3; Richard Gasquet bt Zack Fleishman 6-3, 6-3; Dedi Sela bt Juan Martin Del Potro 2-6, 7-5, 5-3 (retd.); Tomas Berdych bt Jiri Vanek 6-1, 6-4.

At Stuttgart: WTA Grand Prix: First round: Julia Vakulenko bt Julia Goerges 6-4, 6-4; Serena Williams bt Zuzana Ondraskova 6-0, 6-0; Elena Dementieva bt Amelie Mauresmo 6-2, 7-5; Nadia Petrova bt Tatjana Malek 2-6, 6-1, 6-1; Agnieszka Radwanska bt Marion Bartoli 0-6, 6-2, 6-1; Shahar Peer bt Francesca Schiavone 6-1, 7-6(6).

At Metz (France): ATP Metz Open: First round: Stefan Koubek bt Gilles Simon 6-2, 6-1; Julien Benneteau bt Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-4, 6-1; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga bt Stanislas Wawrinka 6-7(6), 6-4, 6-4; Andy Murray bt Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 1-6, 6-2; Andreas Seppi bt Arnaud Clement 6-2, 6-4. — Agencies

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