Sania scrape past Morigami to enter pre-quarter-finals

Stanford, July 23 (UNI) Fresh from her season's best semi-final appearance in last week's Cincinnati Open, Sania Mirza dug in deep to clinch a come-from-behind opening round victory against Akiko Morigami of Japan in the Bank of the West Classic here.

Coming down from a set deficit, the 20-year-old Hyderabadi girl battled hard to pocket the match 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(5), thus making a pre-quarter-final showdown against sixth seed Tatiana Golovin of France, who earlier defeated Ukranian qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova in straight sets.

Should the World Number 35 manages to get past her seeded French opponent, she would be on collision route with fourth seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland and Wimbeldon finalist Marion Bartoli of France in the quarter and semi-finals respectively, of the 600,000 dollar Tier II tournament.

Meanwhile, Sania's doubles partner Shahar Peer of Israel also advanced into the second round with a relatively easy 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Camille Pin of France.

In the doubles draw, the third seed controversial Indo-Israeli duo of Sania and Peer will be up against 11th seed Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus and Anastacia Rodionova of Russia in the first round.

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

UNI