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| Serena Williams after defeating Lucy Safarova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5) at the Hobart International on Tuesday. (AFP) |
Wild card entrant Sania, ranked 66th in the world, downed Oprandi 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 6-0 in the second round at the $145,000 hardcourt event on the WTA Tour. The 20-year-old Indian had ousted world No. 29 Maria Kirilenko of Russia in the first round on Monday.
Meanwhile, Serena Williams may have to remove sister Venus’s number from speed dial after some misguided advice left her scrambling to beat Czech Lucie Safarova at the Hobart International on Tuesday.
“I spoke to Venus before the match, she’s played her before and she said that she was a tough opponent,” Serena told reporters after squeezing past Safarova 6-3, 3-6, 7-6.
“But Venus didn’t give me any good pointers, actually. She told me some false information, so I’ll be calling her back about that.”
The win put Serena into the quarter finals and went some way towards boosting her confidence following her comeback from a four-month injury break.
Serena, preparing for next week’s Australian Open, began well but her game fell apart in the second set and she had to battle all the way to keep her title bid alive.
“It’s been a while since I won a tie-breaker and that was in the back of my mind,” she said.
Serena booked a quarter final spot against Austrian Sybille Bammer, who romped past second seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 6-3.
Alicia Molik kept home interest alive with a 6-3, 7-5 win over Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, while top seed Anna Chakvetadze and China’s Zheng Jie also advanced. (Agencies)
