Sania Mirza through to Second Round at Charleston

Tuesday, 05 April 2011

Indian tennis ace, Sania Mirza stormed into the second round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston with a hardfought three set win over 20-year old Alison Riske of the United States. Mirza, up to 90th in the latest WTA Rankings released this Monday, came through the qualifiers here in Charleston and fought back from losing the first set to prevail 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in a shade over 2 hours. The tournament did lose its first pair of seeds on Monday with Swiss veteran Patty Schnyder losing 6-4, 6-4 to South African Chanelle Scheepers and American doubles specialist Vania King stunning 16th seeded Russian Vera Dushevina, 6-4, 7-6. Surviving the upset bug were 11th seed Shaui Peng, 12th seed Julia Georges and 14th seed Bethanie Mattek-Sands. With the top 8 seeds all getting byes straight into the second round of the Family Circle Cup, it was down to the support cast to provide the early entertainment in South Carolina, and they did not disappoint with as many as 16 matches taking place around the courts on Monday. Patty Schnyder, a 2-time runner-up here in Charleston, was one of the emotional crowd favourites gracing the courts today but the unfortunate no.13 seed fought back bravely from 6-4, 5-1 down, saving an incredible 9 match points before finally succumbing to her 27-year old South African opponent. 32-year old Schnyder announced after the match that this would be her last visit to Charleston to compete. Scheepers keeps coming up against the senior citizens of the WTA Tour as she will run into 36-year old American Jill Craybas in the second round. The veteran American downed Charleston local girl 18-year old Shelby Rogers 3-6, 6-2, 6-0. Vania King, the reigning Wimbledon and US Open Doubles Champion, won a tight two-setter against 16th seed Vera Dushevina that could have well go either way. King won the opening set 6-4, but found herself down set point at 3-5 in the second before battling back to prevaily 9-7 in a tiebreak. She will next face her former doubles partner Sania Mirza of India. The remaining seeds had a largely easy day with Shuai Peng and Mattek-Sands recording identical 6-2, 6-1 victories over Sloane Stephens and Alexandra Stevenson respectively. Lovely German Julia 'Gorgeous' Georges had a considerably tougher time against Olga Govortsova of Belarus, winning 7-5, 6-4. Peng will next face fellow Asian Ayumi Morita in the second round. The Japanese star beat former Croatian teenage sensation Mirjana Lucic 6-2, 6-4. Mattek-Sands will be up against talented Russian Elena Vesnina, a 3-set winner against Canadian Rebecca Marino, while Georges will take on Czech Qualifier Eva Birnerova. Other big name winners on Monday included China's Jie Zheng, Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist Anastasia Rodionova of Australia and 18-year old American Christina McHale, who won a near 3 hour battle of the teenagers against Guernsey's young Heather Watson 7-6 in the third. A few of the higher ranked seeds take the courts on Tuesday, led by no.5 seed Shahar Peer of Israel. She'll be up against Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden. No.6 seed Yanina WIckmayer takes on Jie Zheng in what should easily be the match of the day, while no.8, 9 and 10 seeds, Alisa Kleybanova, Maria Kirilenko and Daniela Hantuchova are all in action too. Singles - First Round [11] S Peng (CHN) d [Q] S Stephens (USA) 62 61 [12] J Goerges (GER) d O Govortsova (BLR) 75 64 C Scheepers (RSA) d [13] P Schnyder (SUI) 64 64 [14] B Mattek-Sands (USA) d [Q] A Stevenson (USA) 62 61 V King (USA) d [16] V Dushevina (RUS) 64 76(7) [Q] I Falconi (USA) d M Rybarikova (SVK) 76(9) 75 A Rodionova (AUS) d Z Ondraskova (CZE) 46 61 62 J Zheng (CHN) d [Q] M Puig (PUR) 36 76(10) 75 J Craybas (USA) d [WC] S Rogers (USA) 36 62 60 E Rodina (RUS) d P Martic (CRO) 64 61 C McHale (USA) d [Q] H Watson (GBR) 57 63 76(3) A Morita (JPN) d M Lucic (CRO) 62 64 [Q] S Mirza (IND) d A Riske (USA) 26 63 63 S Arvidsson (SWE) d A Cornet (FRA) 64 26 63 [Q] E Birnerova (CZE) d M Czink (HUN) 75 26 62 E Vesnina (RUS) d R Marino (CAN) 67(4) 62 63

 

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