The Hindu : Sport : Sania sails into semifinals

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Saturday, Aug 27, 2005

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Sania sails into semifinals

NEW YORK: Sania Mirza outplayed the 61st-ranked Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-2, 6-1 to move into the semifinals of the $74,800 Forest Hills women's tennis classic.

The Hyderabad lass will be facing the 15-year-old American wild-card Alexa Glatch, who already stunned the top seed Akiko Morigami of Japan.

Third-seeded Sania has already assured herself of 59 WTA points including 16 bonus points.

Meanwhile, Shikha Uberoi beat Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 in the second round of the women's qualifying event at the U.S. Open. The U.S.-based Shikha will face top-seeded Sybille Bammer of Austria in the third and final qualifying round.

In the men's section, there was not much cheer for the Indian camp as both Harsh Mankad and Prakash Amritraj bit the dust.

Harsh Mankad went down 3-6, 6-3, 4-6 to the 25th-seeded Julien Benneteau of France while Prakash was outplayed 6-3, 6-1 by the 24th-seeded Michal Mertinak of the Slovakia.

Davenport made to sweat

At New Haven, Connecticut, Lindsay Davenport escaped with a 6-2, 7-6(5) victory over Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova on Thursday to reach the Pilot Pen semifinals, putting her within one win of regaining the No. 1 ranking from Maria Sharapova.

Top-seeded Davenport, tuning up for next week's U.S. Open, struggled to find her serve for the second consecutive match, and delivered eight double faults.

But Davenport, who missed nearly two months with a back injury and has not played a full tournament since losing the Wimbledon final, said it's just a matter of getting her service rhythm back.

"It's one of my biggest weapons," she said. "I'm not scared that it's gone away."

Davenport will next play Anna Chakvetadze of Russia. Chakvetadze downed Zheng Jie of China 6-4, 6-4 and will play in her first career semis.

Davenport, who lost the No. 1 ranking on Monday, beat Hantuchova by surviving a second-set scare. She trailed 3-0 in the second set before winning five straight games, then lost her serve, but saved a break point at 6-5 to force a tiebreaker.

"It would be wrong of me to expect I can come back after seven or eight weeks and be perfect," Davenport said.

Mauresmo has it easy

Second-seeded Amelie Mauresmo remained on course to meet Davenport in the final after winning 6-3, 6-2 over Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld, who made 27 unforced errors.

Mauresmo, who also made the semifinals last week in Montreal, faces Anabel Medina Garrigues after the Spaniard upset No. 4-seeded Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-3. Dementieva, last year's U.S. and French Open runner-up, said she felt sluggish during the morning match.

The results:

At New Haven (Connecticut, Pilot Pen):

Men: Third round: Igor Andreev bt Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 6-3; Feliciano Lopez bt Vince Spadea 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4; Fernando Verdasco bt Fernando Gonzalez 6-7(3), 7-5, 7-6(3); Juan Ignacio Chela bt Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 6-1; Tommy Robredo bt Stefan Koubek 6-2, 6-2; David Ferrer bt Paradorn Srichaphan 6-4, 6-2; Victor Hanescu bt Nicolas Massu 6-4, 6-4; James Blake bt Tommy Haas 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Women: Quarterfinals: Anabel Medina Garrigues bt Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-3; Anna Chakvetadze bt Zheng Jie 6-4, 6-4; Lindsay Davenport bt Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 7-6(5); Amelie Mauresmo bt Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 6-2.

At Forest Hills (New York, Forest Hills women's classic): Iveta Benesova bt Zuzana Ondraskova 6-1, 6-4; Lucie Safarova bt Antonella Serra Zanetti 6-3, 6-3; Sania Mirza bt Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-1; Alexa Glatch bt Martina Sucha 6-1, 6-4. — AP

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