Sania Mirza booms past Jovanovski

Wildcard Sania Mirza used her booming forehand to quell the challenge of Serbian Bojana Jovanovski and storm into the second round of the Qatar Open at the Khalifa International Tennis and Squash Complex yesterday.

The Indian star won 6-2, 7-5 but not before surviving a mid-match crisis of confidence when she was a break down on two occasions before her ferocious groundstrokes bailed her out and put her into the path of another Serbian, the fifth seeded Jelena Jankovic. “I have fond memories of Doha, where India won several medals in the Asian Games in 2006, including a few in tennis,” Mirza said after her victory.

“But I also remember I twisted my ankle the last time I was here for the Qatar Open,” she added for good measure. Mirza’s forehand was always one of the best in the business, but over the years she has failed to develop other aspects of her game, resulting in poor results. A knee and wrist injury also didn’t help.
And yesterday too, Mirza’s absolute reliance on attack was more than evident from the start as she secured three breaks as against Jovanovski’s one to take the first set easily.

In the second set, she went a break down after the fifth game, but fought back gallantly to return the compliment to level at 3-3. The Indian, however, was broken in the seventh game as the Serbian again went ahead.

Mirza then squandered a couple of break points in the next game and fell 5-3 behind before securing two more breaks to close out the match.

Kanepi pulls out

Doha: Estonia’s top tennis player Kaia Kanepi has pulled out of the Qatar Ladies Open because of a fever. Kanepi, who currently stands at number 16 in the WTA rankings, was to play Shuai Peng of China in the tournament’s first round yesterday, but made the decision to pull out due to a high fever, according to an announcement on her website.

The 25-year-old Estonian had been performing well in recent tournaments, just missing a shot at the quarterfinals in Dubai. She will be making her next appearance in early March at the BNP Paribas Open.