Sania brushes aside Venise challenge

After missing the team event due to an ear infection, India's best tennis medal hope Sania Mirza today breezed into the singles second round with a straight-set demolition of Hong Kong's Chan Wing Yau Venise in the Asian Games here today.

Sania Mirza cleared the first hurdle with ease in the women’s singles first round of the Asian Games tennis tournament on Thursday but her compatriot Poojashree Venkatesh crashed out early.

Though not at her best, Sania swatted aside Hong Kong’s Chan Wing Yau Venise 6-1, 6-0 after spending just 50 minutes on centre court at the Aoti Tennis Centre.

Poojashree, meanwhile, lost to seventh seed Chan Kai Chang of Chinese Taipei 2-6, 2-6 in 48 minutes on court two.

It was Sania’s first match of the Games as she was forced to miss the team event due to illness. The Indian ace said she was happy with her form.

“It was my first match here and it is a good beginning, though I was feeling a bit rusy. I didn’t feel well in the last two weeks, now I feel much better,”
Sania said she wasn’t looking too far ahead in the competition.

“I won several medals in Doha 2006 but four years is a long time and I will be taking it one match at a time here,” added Sania, whose husband Shoaib Malik joined her here three days back.

Sania, ranked 166 in singles now, will next play China’s Shuai Zhang, the sixth seed from China who is ranked 91st for a place in the quarterfinals. Zhang ousted Malika Rana of Nepal 6-0, 6-0 in her first-round encounter.

Other seeded players also progressed without difficulty. The top three seeds, Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan, Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand and Akgul Amanamuradova of Uzbekistan got first-round byes while fourth seed Shuai Peng of China ousted Aslesha Lissanevitch of Nepal 6-0, 6-0 while fifth seed Ayumi Morita of Japan got past Ksenia Palkina of Kyrgyzstan 6-1, 6-1.

In mixed doubles, Sanam Singh and Rushmi Chakravarthi beat Vaja Uzakov and Nigina Abduraimova of Uzbekistan 7-5, 6-3 in the first round. Somdev Devvarman, India’s hope in men’s singles, begins his campaign on Friday, with a match against Jabor Mohammed Al Mutawa of Qatar. He is seeded second in the event.