The Hindu : Sport : Sania sails past Delia

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 09, 2005

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Sport

Sania sails past Delia

By A. Joseph Antony

FLATTERING TO DECEIVE: Shikha Uberoi promised much but went down in three sets to Melinda Czink. — Photo: P.V. Sivakumar

HYDERABAD, FEB. 8. Not many would have wanted to be in Delia Sescioreanu's shoes at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh complex on Tuesday night. For she had to face the firepower of Sania Mirza and the baying crowd backing their favourite. The city lass duly obliged the full house with a 6-2, 7-5 win in the singles first round of the Women's Tennis Association-Hyderabad Open 2005.

With a whiplash of a forehand, Sania exploited the two weakness Sescioreanu was beset by. The stocky Romanian's court movement was slow and her groundstrokes brittle. Whenever she ventured to the net, she was passed and Sania's deep and probing returns pushed her further behind the baseline and on to the backfoot.

Broken in the fifth and seventh games of the first set, Delia appeared quite defensive. In the second, she showed more stomach for a fight and raised her play accordingly. Games went with serve, until Sania spilt hers in the fourth. In the very next game she avenged that loss. A long tussle ensued in the seventh, with the advantage crossing the net time and again, but Delia held on.

Sania's far too forceful forehanders at times went long or wide but one stupendous half volley from close to the net in the ninth, more than made up for it. Swatting a forehander way out of Sescioreanu's reach, Sania wrested her rival's serve in the 11th and thereafter the path to victory was smooth.

Melinda Czink, trailing by a set, clawed her way back to subdue Shikha Uberoi 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-2. The torment from a thigh strain began to tell on the US-raised Shikha at the start of the third set, when she needed medical attention. Czink, who splits time between Delray Beach in Florida and her native Budapest, lost her cool now and then but not her control at crucial times.

If she was the girl with far-away eyes, her game was even more distant. World No. 4 at one time, Jelena Dokic was a pale shadow of her past self in her opening round encounter against Italy's Mara Santangelo. The devastating double fisted backhand that destroyed top guns by the dozen and helped cause the biggest upset in the Open era, rarely made its appearance.

Deceptive start

The Serb's stunning stop volley in the very first game held out promise but proved deceptive as the contest progressed. Shades of her prowess surfaced now and then, when her serves screeched over the sidelines, eluding even the outstretched hand of the nearly six feet tall Santangelo. Simply not in her element, the three aces she dished out were squandered by an equal number of double faults.

Santangelo got the measure of her famed rival's serve, early in the contest.

For her to call the shots, a show of strength was necessary, which she amply illustrated with two aces right in the lung-opener. Making the most of her height, Santangelo rifled high and bouncy serves that elicited not very convincing responses from Dokic. With a sprinkle of service winners at other times, she maintained the stranglehold as best as she could.

When receiving, she patted the ball away to Dokic's right and left, which often the latter never even attempted to retrieve. A tad slow in court coverage, Santangelo was a game trier, even endeavouring a round-the-back return when wrong-footed by Dokic. The Italian packed far too much power in her strokes, an effort to chip reaching Dokic in the back-court. Into the second set, she toned it down with top-spun forehanders that improved her accuracy.

The results:

Singles (first round): Sania Mirza (Ind) bt Delia Sescioreanu (Rom) 6-2, 7-5; Mara Santangelo (Ita) bt Jelena Dokic (Ser) 7-6(2), 6-3; Melinda Czink (Hun) bt Shikha Uberoi (Ind) 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2; Jarmila Gajdosova (Slo) bt Ting Li (Chi) 6-3, 6-2; Evie Dominikovic (Aus) bt Shiho Hisamatsu (Jap) 6-0, 6-3; Na Li (Chi) bt Marie Gayanay Mikaelian (Swi) 6-3, 6-3; Tamarine Tanasugarn (Tha) bt Akgul Amanmuradova (Uzb) 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; Anna Lena Groenefeld (Ger) bt Mandy Minella (Lux) 6-3, 6-4; Maria Kirilenko (Rus) bt Tatiana Poutchek (Bel) 6-3, 6-1.

Doubles (first round): Mara Santangelo/ Andrea Vanc bt Ekaterina Bychkova/ Tatiana Poutchek 6-2, 1-6, 6-3; Anastassia Rodionova/ Ma Emilia Salerni bt Tzipora Obziler/ Shahar Peer 6-2, 6-2; Ting Li/ Tian Tian Sun bt Monique Adamczak/ Nicole Kriz 2-6, 6-0, 6-1.

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