The Hindu : Sport : Sania advances with consummate ease

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 15, 2006

Sport

Sport

Sania advances with consummate ease

Nandita Sridhar

TAKE THAT! India's Isha Lakhani rifling a return enroute to her win over Katarina Kachlikova at the WTA Bangalore Open on Tuesday. - PHOTO: K. BHAGYA PRAKASH

Bangalore: Sania Mirza threw in a few bombs as she defeated Martina Muller 6-2, 6-2 in the first round of the Bangalore Open at the KSLTA Stadium, on Tuesday.

Sania did what she normally does with consummate ease. But what stood out was her serve, not considered her strength.

Serving a lot away from her body in this match, she made sure that Muller was made to shuffle between the T and the edge of the box, in pursuit of the ball which regularly deserted her.

With her serves doing her bidding, all Sania had to do was pound the short balls, and smack those forehands.

"She makes you hit a lot of balls and it gets a bit hard because her shots have no pace. But I adapted well and I'm happy," said Sania.

With her opponent in no major hurry to see the rallies end, Sania made sure she was in the right position to generate a lot of pace off her own shots. The crowds that had turned out to support Sania were not disappointed as she enthralled them with some blistering shots down the line.

Noisy crowd

The only time Muller showed what she was capable of was towards the fag end of the match. Having saved a match point off her serve, she pulled off a few winners, and even managed an ace to save the game.

By this time, a few vocal chords were under severe threat and Sania made sure no larynx casualties in the crowd would be reported, by clinching the next game and the match.

When questioned on her next match with Camille Pin: "We'll see how it goes. I will look to stick to my basics. There is a lot of depth in women's tennis. Anybody can beat anyone", said Sania.

"I didn't have rhythm and it's hard to find rhythm against someone like her. I didn't return well either," said Muller.

When asked if the noisy crowd bothered her, she said: "I heard that it is tough to play here, that too when playing against her. It wasn't too easy."

India's Isha Lakhani was leading 4-1 in the first set, when her opponent Katarina Kachlikova pulled out due to an injury. After going through three qualifying rounds, Kachlikova looked nowhere near her best and couldn't complete the match.

"I would have preferred winning, but it's good to get to the next round," said Isha.

She will meet Yuliana Fedak, who entered the second round after eighth seeded Emma Laine retired due to an acute throat problem. Fedak was leading 6-3, 2-1 at that stage.

Ankita Bhambri put up a good fight, but lost to Kaia Kanepi 5-7, 3-6, in the first round.

Matching her shot to shot in the first set, Ankita was tactically outlasted in the second unable to deal with the high bounce that Kanepi's shots provided her with towards the end.

Another seed bit the dust when Sybille Bammer lost to Anastassia Rodionova 4-6, 7-5, 0-6.

Other results:

Singles (first round): Mara Santangelo bt Henrieta Nagyova 6-3, 6-2; Vania King bt Tatiana Poutchek 6-1, 6-3; Tzipora Obziler bt Su-Wei Hsieh 6-3, 6-4; Alla Kudryavtseva bt Tamarine Tanasugarn 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Doubles (first round): Alona Bondarenko/Kateryna Bondarenko bt Eva Hrdinova/Aiko Nakamura 4-6, 6-1, 6-1; Anastassia Rodionova/Elena Vesnina bt Yuliana Fedak/Tatiana Poutchek 6-3, 6-4; Mariya Koryttseva/Shahar Peer bt Ekaterina Dzehalevich/Kyra Nagy 6-4, 6-2.

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