Sania Mirza to feel the glory and heat in the 3rd round of US Open

The 20-year old and 26 th seed Indian tennis sensation continuing her recent form has moved to the third round of Women’s Singles, US Open in New York. She has to now take on Russian Anna Chakvetadze to reach the fourth round on Saturday.

In a second round match on Thursday Mirza defeated Laura Granville in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. And this is for the first time in two years that Sania has reached the third round of a tournament. Earlier in 2005 she was able to reach the fourth round of United States Open and made it believe to everyone that an Indian can reach that spot and since then her career graph is improving with every match she plays.

However, as far as her second round match is concerned she has to be very consistent with serve and also needs to reduce the number of unforced errors she did in the second set of match. Granville also falls behind Mirza with some powerful forehand stroke and also the pace. As a result Sania was able to finish the second set with a 6-5 lead.

In the third round she needs to be careful while playing against the sixth seed Chakvetadze. Chakvetadze’s last year performance in US Open was impressive as she had reached the 4 th round. But the worrying factor for Sania will be that in the year 2007 both players have met thrice and in all three matches the Russian was able to beat Mirza.

Sania also in the Mixed Doubles with partner Mahesh Bhupathi has advanced to the second round of the US Open defeating the 7 th seeds Canadian-Russian duo Elena Likhovtseva and Daniel Nestor in straight sets 6-0 6-2. Now they have to face a stronger contender, the 5 th seeded Czech pair of Kveta Peshcke and Martin Damm. In another Mixed Doubles match Leander Paes and Meghan Shaughnessy has also entered the second round defeating Janette Husarova and Pavel Vizner.

Meanwhile, in Men’s Doubles Mahesh Bhupati has also reached the second round with partner Nenad Zimonjic by defeating the pair Igor Kunittsyn and Dmitry Tursunov.