New Delhi: Sania Mirza set up a tough third round clash with fourth seed Elena Dementieva after registering a straight-set victory over Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik in the second round of the Acura Classic at San Diego, California.

The Indian teen beat Srebotnik 6-3, 7-6(4) in a close to one and a half hour match to move into the next round, where she plays the Russian World No. 6, who had beaten her in the first round of the Wimbledon.

Sania started well against a tentative Srebotnik, who was struggling with her serve. The Indian converted all her three break points that came her way to push the World No. 22 to the backfoot.

She completely dominated the first set and hit 30 winners compared to Srebotnik's 19 to seize the initiative.

The next set, however, proved to be a test for Sania as a resurgent Srebotnik clawed her way back into the match. The Slovenian, however, was once again let down by her serve as she committed four double-faults.

Sania broke Srebotnik twice in the set but could not prevent the match from going into a tie-breaker in which the Indian held her nerves to seal the match.

Meanwhile, defending champion Mary Pierce won her first match after a six-month layoff for right foot injuries, holding off Sybille Bammer 6-1, 6-7(7), 7-6(4).

Top-seeded Kim Clijsters had no trouble in advancing to the third round with a 6-1, 6-2 win over Samantha Stosur of Australia.

Hewitt moves up

Third seed Lleyton Hewitt advanced to the third round of the Legg Mason Classic with a gritty 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-4 victory over an upset-minded Vincent Spadea in a two-hour, 32-minute slugfest.

In other matches involving seeds, No. 7 Dmitry Tursunov of Russia advanced after Edgardo Massa retired with an injured right shoulder trailing 3-6, 6-1, 3-3.

Also advancing was eighth-seeded Andy Murray of Britain, playing his first match under the tutelage of Brad Gilbert, stopping Paraguay's Ramon Delgado 6-4, 6-3.

Ranked 96th in the world, American Spadea had Hewitt on the ropes when he forged a 5-3 lead in the second-set tiebreaker after having won the first set, but the Australian won the next four points to force a decisive third set.

Spadea was left to rue a costly double fault that allowed Hewitt to get back on level terms at 5-5 in the tiebreaker.

"That was probably the biggest point of the match for me," Spadea told reporters. "I kind of went for it (on my second serve), I didn't want to play it tentatively.

"I can't really be discouraged about that, but at the same time, I didn't execute it."

Hewitt broke the American's serve in the ninth game of the final set to take a 5-4 lead and held on to clinch his sixth career victory over Spadea in as many matches.

"He's a tough player to play sometimes because he's so flashy," the World No. 12 Hewitt said.

"I hit some good first serves out there, swingers out wide, and he's slashing on it the whole time. Some go out by five or six metres and others go for clean winners."

"It's awkward to play against a guy like that."

Digging deep

Hewitt appeared to break Spadea's spirit after winning the second-set tiebreaker and taking the opening game of the third set on the American's serve.

However, the American dug deep despite the oppressive heat and humidity to break Hewitt and level the match at 3-3.

"He was sort of moping around a little bit and I wasn't sure if he was struggling or not out there," Hewitt said. "He was still coming up with some good shots.

"I thought I was sailing to the finish line and all of a sudden, I'm in a dogfight."

While Hewitt prepares to face Germany's Denis Gremelmayr in the next round, Spadea was left to ponder what might have been.

"I almost pulled through tonight," he said.

"If I had a little extra juice. I'm coming close to having a win against him. I just don't match up too well because my weapons aren't big enough to overpower him."

An early exit

Fourth seeded Indo-Czech pair of Leander Paes and Martin Damm made an early exit with a 6-3, 6-4 first round defeat against unheralded wild card pair of Ramon Delgado and Rick Leach.

Despite their impressive track record, Paes and Damm never looked in comfort against their little known rivals and their scrappy show saw the first set slipping through their fingers.

Paes and Damm have been in similar situations in the past and bailed themselves out on umpteen occasions but that was not to be here. Despite a slight improvement in their coordination, it was too little and too late as their rivals walked away with the match.

Meanwhile, the Uberoi sisters Neha and Shikha crashed out of the women's pro-circuit event at the Legg Mason.

In her first round match, lucky loser Neha was handed a 6-4, 6-2 defeat by Italian Alberta Brianti. Earlier, the Uberoi siblings had made an early exit in women's doubles with a 7-5, 6-2 defeat at the hands of Canadian Marie-Eve Pelletier and U.S.-based Sunitha Rao. In singles, Shikha was trailing 6-2, 2-0 in the second set when she threw in the towel in the first round match against Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn.

Gaudio crashes out

Austria's Oliver Marach upset third-seeded Gaston Gaudio 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(4) in the second round of the Prokom Open on Wednesday.

Marach rallied from 5-3 down in the third set against the 2004 Roland Garros champion, claiming only his 15th career victory on the main ATP tour.

In the quarterfinals, Marach will face seventh-seeded Filippo Volandri of Italy, who put out Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Carlos Berlocq of Argentina also rallied to beat Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic 5-7, 7-5, 6-0, and achieved consecutive wins for the first time in his career.

The results:

At San Diego (WTA Acura Classic): Second round: Kim Clijsters bt Samantha Stosur 6-1, 6-2; Jelena Jankovic bt Alona Bondarenko 6-1, 7-6(4); Flavia Pennetta bt Jamea Jackson 6-2, 7-6(1); Anna Chakvetadze bt Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-2; Ana Ivanovic bt Amy Frazier 6-3, 6-2; Daniela Hantuchova bt Olga Savchuk 6-2, 6-4; Patty Schnyder bt Gisela Dulko 6-4, 6-1; Paola Suarez bt Katerina Bondarenko 7-6(4), 2-6, 6-3; Sania Mirza bt Katarina Srebotnik 6-3, 7-6(4); Elena Dementieva bt Ashley Harkleroad 6-2, 6-2; Mary Pierce bt Sybille Bammer 6-1, 6-7(7), 7-6(4); Emma Laine bt Elena Vesnina 6-7(1), 7-6(5), 6-4; Vera Zvonareva bt Shuai Peng 3-6, 7-6(5) (retd.).

At Washington DC (ATP Legg Mason Classic): Second round: Lleyton Hewitt bt Vincent Spadea 6-7(3), 7-6(5), 6-4; Denis Gremelmayr bt Bjorn Phau 6-4, 6-3; Dominik Hrbaty bt Gilles Muller 4-6, 6-4, 6-3; Andrew Murray bt Ramon Delgado 6-4, 6-3; Feliciano Lopez bt Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-4, 6-4; Mardy Fish bt Tomas Zib 6-4, 6-4; Dmitry Tursunov bt Edgardo Massa 3-6, 6-1, 3-3 (retd.); Hyung-taik Lee bt Julien Benneteau 6-3, 6-4; Jan-Michael Gambill bt Janko Tipsarevic 2-6, 6-3, 6-0.

At Sopot (Orange Prokom Open): Second round: Carlos Berlocq bt Lukas Dlouhy 5-7, 7-5, 6-0; Olivier Marach bt Gaston Gaudio 5-7, 6-4, 7-6(4); Filippo Volandri bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 3-6, 6-4. — Agencies

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