Sania sails into singles, mixed doubles QF

Guangzhou: India's Sania Mirza cruised into the women's tennis singles and mixed doubles quarterfinals at the Asian Games here on Friday.

Sania scored a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory over sixth-seeded Chinese Shuai Zhang and later with Vishnu Vardhan beat China's Shengnan Sun and Bai Yan 6-3, 4-6, 1-0 (10). The sixth-seeded Indian pair next play Chinese Taipei's fourth-seeded Chia Jung Chuang and Chu-Huan Yi.

In the women's singles, the 166th-ranked Sania took one hour and 17 minutes to beat Shuai, who had defeated her at the Guangzhou Open here in September. Sania, a silver medallist at the 2006 Doha Games, now plays 33-year-old Thai Tamarine Tanasugarn, who is seeded second.

In the men's singles, Somdev Devvarman and Karan Rastogi stormed into the third round with thumping victories. It took a mere 37 minutes for second-seeded Somdev to blaze into the third round with a 6-0, 6-0 demolition of Jabor Mohammed Al Mutawa of Qatar. He next plays 16th-seeded Vaja Uzakov of Uzbekistan.

Rastogi, seeded seventh, thrashed Turkmenistan's Myalikkuli Mamedkuliyev 6-0, 6-0 and will take on 10th-seeded Ti Chen of Chinese Taipei.

The sixth-seeded pair of Somdev and Sanam Singh then combined to beat Johnny Arcilla and Ruben Jr. Gonzales of Philippines 6-4, 6-2. The Indians will face China's Bai Yan and Zhang Ze in the quarterfinal.

In another men's doubles second-round match, Rastogi and Vardhan lost to South Korea's Young Jun Kim and Jae Min Seol 6-1, 3-6, 0-1 (3).

In the women's doubles, fifth-seeded Chinese Shengnan and Shuai defeated India's Tara Iyer and Nirupama Sanjeev 6-4, 7-5.

India's Sanam Singh and Rushmi Chakravarthi lost to Japanese Hiroki Kondo and Yurika Sema 4-6, 6-3, 1-0(3) in the second round.

In the women's singles encounter, Sania and Shuai traded plenty of breaks but the Indian was a notch better in making less errors and also holding her service games.

Sania broke the Chinese early in the match for a 3-1 lead. She then saved two break points in the seventh. Sania put pressure on Shuai's serve and earned a set point, hitting a stinging backhand deep and low. The Chinese hung on but Sania showed a streak of aggressive tennis to earn another set point and this time closing it out as Shuai's backhand hit the net.

Shuai came back strongly in the second set, breaking Sania, once ranked 27th in the world, in the first game. Sania pulled one off immediately to draw level.

Sania stretched Shuai to the corners with her deep ground-strokes and went up 40-0 on Shuai's serve, eventually breaking the Chinese in the sixth game to lead 4-2.

Shuai showed signs of resurgence as she played her best tennis in the next game. Down 0-40, she reeled off four points in a row to stand on the verge of breaking back. Sania managed to hold on and had a match point when Shuai committed a double fault in the next game. Sania finished the match with a forehand winner.