Tennis: Sania on song, strorms in to semis

Stanford (California) July 28: Sania Mirza stormed into her second sucessive semifinal, stunning fourth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in straight sets at the 600,000 dollar Stanford Classic here.

The unseeded Indian belied her lower ranking as she beat last year's finalist Schnyder 7-6, (7/2), 6-1 to set up a semi-final showdown with eighth seed Austrian Sybille Bammer.

For the second successive day, Sania accounted for a seeded victim -- after her win over sixth-seeded Tatiana Golovin of France -- in the quarter-finals.

The 20-year-old Hyderabadi has been enjoying a roller-coaster ride off late, reaching the the last four stage in last week's Cincinnati Open.

Bammer destroyed American Lilia Osterloh 6-2, 6-1 to advance into the last eight stage.

Top seed Anna Chakvetadze continued her rich vein of US hardcourt form by defeating Katarina Srebotnik 4-6 6-2 6-2 to move into the semi-finals.

Cheered on by a big crowd, the Indian ace was in full flow in the second set and disposed of Schnyder for th loss of just one game.

Sania upended Schnyder by putting up a wall on her backhand side, serving consistently and leaping on her foe's second serve.

An elated Sania said after the match, ''I probably hit 90 per cent backhands today and I'm happy the way I converted my weakness into a strength.'' ''Experience and maturity are two things that I have learnt over the last two years and it helped out tonight.

''When I am on the court, the crowd does get me going. This crowd is always cheering and there is always a positive vibe.

But at the end of the day, you are the player and you are down 5-2, so you have to get it done,'' Sania said.

Sania, however, said beating two players ranked in the top-20 does not mean that she is going to take her semi-final opponent, Sybille, whom she has never played before, lightly.

''Just because I was able to beat Golovin and Schnyder does not mean the road gets any easier tomorrow. Sybille is a great player and she is in the semi-finals so she has been doing things right too.

''She [Sybille] has also been to a final this year. The only advantage maybe is that I played a left-hander today and now I will be playing another left-hander tomorrow,'' said the world No 35.

The Indian ace revealed the reason behind her improved performance, saying ''I must be doing something right. I don't go for every ball anymore. I'm feeling good out there.'' Chakvetadze, last week's winner in Cincinnati, will meet third seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, who overcame 18-year-old Belarussian Olga Govortsova 7-5 6-3.

World No 17 and last year finalist Schnyder got off the blocks in a flash and raced to a commanding 5-2 lead before Sania hit some powerful strokes and pushed the set to a tie-break, finally pocketing 7-2.

Even in doubles, Sania and her Israeli partner Shahar Peer rallied from behind to get past unseeded Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan and Angelika Bachmann of Germany 5-7, 6-3, 10-6 and stormed into the semi-finals of the Bank of the West Classic tennis tournament here.

Sania, partnering Bethanie Mettack of the US, claimed her second doubles title of the year at Cincinnati last week.

UNI