Sania Mirza

Tashkent: Sania Mirza overcame a tough challenge from Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic to move into the quarter finals of the $145,000 WTA Tashkent Open on Thursday.

Third seeded Sania won the second round match 6-4, 7-5. The start of the match was delayed due to rain.

The world No. 59, who became the first Indian woman to win a WTA event at the Hyderabad Open in 2004, broke to 6-5 lead in the second set and closed it out an hour, 34 minutes.

Sixth-seeded Olga Poutchkova of Russia beat Olivia Sanchez of France 7-5, 6-1 after a two-hour rain delay to reach the last eight for the fourth consecutive tournament.

Also, 2004 Olympics doubles champion Sun Tiantian of China defeated Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus 6-4, 6-4; and 17-year-old Belarussian Victoria Azarenka beat Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-4.

Azarenka, 1.8 m tall, with a powerful serve and a grunt to go with each of her solid groundstrokes, against Cibulkova, 1.6m tall, a counter-puncher with greater variety in her stroke making.

Sania, who took the court around 6 pm, had a scrappy game against Sromova. “I’m just happy to go through,” she said later.

“I started playing better in the second set but I was lucky. She (Sromova) had so many set points. It could have gone either way.”

Sania, after some initial jitters, seemed to have the game under control when she served for the first set, 5-2 up. But she lost that game, after five deuces, wasting two set points. She made no mistake when serving for the set the second time around but her inconsistency continued to plague her in the second set.

After an early break, Sania found herself 2-5 down and Sromova had three set points before being broken in the eighth game. That sort of steadied Sania and the forehand winners flowed a bit more easily as she won the last five games for the match.

Asked about her quarter-final with Poutchkova, Sania replied: “It’s going to be a good match. She’s one of the players I’ve known longest, five-six years and we play a similar kind of game.” (AGENCIES)