Sport

Sania outlasts a determined Kanepi

NEW YORK: India’s Sania Mirza fired eight aces and outlasted her determined Estonian rival Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 6-7(5), 6-1 on Tuesday to reach the second round of the US Open tennis championships.

Sania, seeded 26th, advanced to a second-round match against 60th-ranked American Laura Granville, who ousted French qualifier Olivia Sanchez 6-2, 6-2.

Sania, 20, improved to 27-15 for the season and 5-2 at Flushing Meadows, where she achieved her best Grand Slam showing with a run to the round of 16 in her 2005 debut before losing to 2006 US Open winner Maria Sharapova of Russia.

A net cord winner gave Sania a break in the second game of the final set and Kanepi’s sixth double fault of the match cost another, giving Sania a 4-0 edge. Each held from there to the finish, which came after one hour and 40 minutes when Kanepi netted a backhand.

Sania broke for a 2-1 lead in the first set when the Estonian sent a forehand wide, then broke again for a 5-2 edge when Kanepi netted a forehand.

Kanepi, 22, responded by pushing Sania to the brink with two break points in the next game, but Kanepi sent a backhand long on each and Sania smacked a forehand winner past her to claim the first set after 25 minutes.

Sania claimed a break in the fifth game of the second set when Kanepi double-faulted, but surrendered a break herself in the next game and each held to a tie-breaker.

Kanepi hit a pair of forehand winners for a 6-3 lead, but Sania followed with two service winners before sending a forehand long to force a third set.

Sania, who won her only WTA title at Hyderabad in 2005, could face a third-round rematch with Russian sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze, who beat Sania in the Stanford final and Cincinnati semifinals last month.

Former champion and fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova overcame an early break point to dominate Klara Zakopalova 6-2, 6-3.

The 81st-ranked Czech pushed Kuznetsova to break point in the opening game, but conceded three points later and lost the opening set in 25 minutes. Kuznetsova, who made 70 per cent of her first serves, and Zakopalova traded three consecutive breaks to leave the Russian ahead 5-3 in the second set, and she served out in her first step of a bid to repeat her 2004 title.

Other early results included No. 16 Lleyton Hewitt beating Amer Delic of the United States 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 in the men’s draw. On the women’s side, No. 30 Agnieszka Radwanska routed Japan’s Akiko Morigami 6-2, 6-1.

Meanwhile, on Monday, Roger Federer, bidding for his fourth successive Open title, blew away American Scoville Jenkins 6-3, 6-2, 6-4

Venus Williams fired a Grand Slam record-tying 129 mph serve en route to an easy 6-2, 6-1 victory over Hungarian qualifier Kira Nagy, while her sister Serena had a tougher time but prevailed over Angelique Kerber of Germany, 6-3, 7-5 — Agencies

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