Sania, Peer advance to second round at Wimbledon

London, June 30 (UNI) Sania Mirza transformed her friendship with Israeli Sahar Peer into a potent force to defeat Swede Sofia Arvidsson and American Lilia Osterloh in straight sets 7-5, 6-3 and sail through to the second round of the Women's doubles competition at Wimbledon here.

The 16th seeded Indo-Israeli combo took a little under 90 minutes to dispatch their opponents in a late second round clash.

Putting up a thoroughly professional show at the grasscourt here, Sania and Peer showed no signs of an off-court controversy back home although they committed 35 unforced errors against 19 by their rivals.

They also had four double faults against their names but sent down 47 winners to none from the opposition.

The Indo-Israeli pair will now meet Hungarian Agnes Szavay Czech's Vladimira Uhlirova, who defeated Iveta Benesova (Czech) and Galina Voskoboeva (Russia) 6-4, 6-7, 8-6.

Today Sania will tango with Mahesh Bhupathi to take on David Skoch of Czech Republic and Janette Husarova of Slovakia in a first round Mixed doubles match, which was originally scheduled to be held yesterday.

UNI