Sania advances to Round 2 of Australian Open

NI Wire

New Delhi

Tue, 15 Jan 2008: 

India's tennis sensation Sania Mirza has advanced to the second round of the grand slam opener Australian Open, after scoring a comfortable 6-4, 6-2 straight set victory over wildcard entrant Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan.

The 31-seeded Indian overcame her opponent without any difculty and had no traces of injuries while playing that she had been struggling with over a year.

Sania will now take on the winner of Australian Sophie Ferguson and Swiss Timea Bacsinszky in the second round.

The 21-year-old must be playing an unseeded opponent in the next round, but could probably meet 8th-seed Venus Williams in the third round.

Sania started on a bad note as her serve was broken in the first set. But she fought back by bringing out her best to register an emphatic 6-4, 6-2 victory in an hour and nine minutes.

Sania had 21 winners while her opponent had 15, but the thing that made the difference in the end was the 11 double-faults made by her rival Tulyaganova.