Sania sails into quarter-final in Acura Classic

San Diego, Aug 2: Sania Mirza struggled to find her past two weeks' fine form but came out unscathed as she scored a 7-6(1), 6-3 win over Eleni Daniilidou of Greece and sailed into the quarter-finals of the Accura Classic here.

Sania last week reached her first WTA Tour Tier II final in Stanford which came after her semi-final at Cincinnati. These were followed by reaching 31st spot in WTA rankings, second time in her career.

But against Daniilidou, she was tentaive for most part of the tie with her serve not at its best. Her confidence from her two previous weeks' success though did the trick as she saved several break points in the one hour 38 minute contest.

The first set was equally matched, with the Indian finding hard to find her rhythm and sending down five service double faults.

She saved as many as seven break points in her service while converting three which came her way in her opponent's serve.

In the second set also, Sania had to save as many as eight break points on her own serve and converting three out of five from Daniilidou's serve.

Sania will have to come out blazing in the next round against eighth seed Dinara Safina of Russia, who had accounted for Camille Pin of France 6-1, 6-4 , if she has to advance in the semi-finals of the 1,340,000 dollar Tier I event.

The tournament has many stars from the WTA top 20 including Maria Sharapova, Anna Chakvetadze and Daniela Hantuchova from top 10.

Sania, however, did not have to struggle in the doubles as she and Shahar Peer sailed into the second round.

The seventh seeded Indo-Isreali pair easily beat German-Czech pair of Angelika Bachmann and Hana Sromova 6-4, 6-0.

Sania-Peer is eyeing their second consecutive doubles title here, after their title at Stanford.

For Sania, though, a doubles win here would be her third straight title in as many weeks. She had won at Cincinnati, pairing with Bethanie Mattek of United States.

UNI