Sania Mirza advances into the second round at Miami
Indian qualifier Sania Mirza downed 28-year-old Spanish Arantxa Parra Santonja in straight sets. She registered a 6-2, 6-4 win over the Spaniard to advance to the second round at the 2011 Sony Ericsson Open on Wednesday.
Ranked 99th in the world, Mirza is in great form. Although she exited from the second round at Dubai, Doha and Indian Wells, she displayed tremendous skills at the doubles in Indian Wells and won the 2011 BNP Paribas
Open Women’s Doubles title which gave her the confidence she required in this WTA Premier event. She reached this spot after dumping Chinese Xinyun Han and 8th seeded Czech Renata Voracova in straight sets at the qualifiers of this event.
Facing the Spaniard for the first time and unaware of her opponents moves and weaknesses, Mirza showed some exceptional skills from her arsenal of abilities and secured a straight sets victory in just under 73 minutes.
The 24-year-old Indian completely outshined the Spaniard in every department of tennis in the opening set. She had an acceptable first serve share of 67 percent as compared to slightly lower Santonja’s 61 percent and earned a spectacular
93 percent win on it. Mirza also held her opening serve through her brilliant tact and later held her entire serves as well. She then clinched the set with a 6-2 win by converting two out of four breakpoint opportunities to her advantage.
Santonja, currently ranked 62nd in the WTA world rankings, is in good shape as well. She reached the final at Acapulco with her awesome agility and skills before losing to 4th seeded Argentinean Gisela Dulko.
However, the Spaniard showed no spark in the second set. She double faulted three times and had a poor first serve share of 42 percent as compared to Mirza’s 61 percent.
The youngster on the other hand fired an ace and converted two out of three breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the set with a 6-4 score line. Mirza also saved two out of three breakpoints and had a higher return
point winning percentage.
The Indian will next face 24th seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko who received a bye into the second round. Mirza needs to focus more on her shots and practice harder to face the seeded Russian since she usually loses in
big matches.
World number 27, Kirilenko reached the final at Mosco in October but this year she hasn’t had much progress so far. She was ousted in the second rounds at the Australian Open, Pattaya City, Dubai and Indian Wells before reaching
in this event.
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