Sania advance into 2nd round of Cincinnati Open

Cincinnati, July 17 (UNI) Third seed Sania Mirza put her Wimbledon woes aside to carve a facile 6-4, 6-3 win over American Abigail Spears in the first round of the 175,000 dollar Cincinnati Women's Open here today.

The 20-year-old Sania shook off a sluggish start, losing the first three games to Spears but rallied in time to take the opening set.

Sania showed her special affinity for the WTA event where she reached the quarterfinals in the last two years, as she got into the groove against the 140th-ranked rival to easily pocket the second set 6-3 and the match.

''She started off very well and rarely missed anything, and I just found it a little hard to focus, maybe because it was my first match of the tournament,'' Sania said after the match.

''But at the end when I really needed it, I pulled it off.

I made the balls I needed and the winners I needed. I'm just taking it match by match,'' she addeds.

About her injury problems, she said, ''I feel fit now - I feel fitter than when I stopped. My knee is probably around 90% right now, but that last 10% is the hardest part to get. I still struggle with some movements, but it doesn't hamper me when I play. That's just how it is.'' Sania, ranked 38th in the world, next faces the winner of the match between Varvara Lepchenko (Uzbekistan) and Kirsten Flower (USA).

The Hyderabadi nose-ringed girl's serve did the trick for her as she won 69 per cent of her first serve points and although she was a break down in the second set as well, she pressed on the accelerator to breeze past her opponent.

The Indian has by default become the highest seeded player as the event has already been plagued by the withdrawals of several players due to injuries, including Serena Williams, Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli, defending champion Vera Zvonareva and last year's runner-up Katarina Srebotnik.

Sania has been drawn on the same half with top seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze and if she can manage to reach the final, she may run into former champion Patty Schnyder.

In doubles, Sania teams up with American Bethanie Mattek and the top seeded Indo-American pair takes on Catalina Castano (Colombia) and Meng Yuan (China) in the first round.

UNI