It was a good day for seeded players in Pattaya City, Thailand, as no upsets were produced as action continued from Asia.

After the number two seed Kirilenko tumbled out earlier this week, on Wednesday seeds were impeccable with all advancing to the quarterfinals. Mara Santangelo and Sania Mirza were among the winners. While Santangelo had a routine win against russian Alla Kudryavtseva, Mirza had to recover fom a second set hiccup to put away home hope Tamarine Tanasugarn. Santangelo dominated the match blowign past her opponent with a 6-2, 6-4 win. Mirza on the other hand, could close the match in two sets but eventually tamed Tanasugarn by 6-4, 2-6, 6-1, to set up a clash with Santangelo. Both women share the fact of having won their only WTA title in India, Mirza’s country, with Mara claiming Bangalore and Mirza claiming the title in her home town, Hyderabad.

Other players advancing include China’s 21 year-old Shuai Peng, who defeated an always tough Romina Oprandi, (5)6-7, 6-1, 6-3 to set a showdown match with either Israeli Tzipora Obziler or Japanese Aiko Nakamura ( the no. 8 seed this week).

Sybille Bammer, the only player so far this year to op Serena Williams, made way into the quarterfinals after beating russian Anastasia Rodionova in straight sets, 6-2 and 7-5. Bammer will meet either top seed Marion Bartoli or Slovakian Martina Sucha.

Unfortunately, one of the favourites for the title this week, Alicia Molik had to pull out of her singles match on Thursday versus Gisela Dulko due to a hamstring injury she picked up at a doubles match on Wednesday. Dulko will meet either Pratt or American hope Vania King in the quarterfinals.

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Indian tennis icon Sania Mirza defeated the crowd favorite Tamarine Tanasugarn in 3 sets 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 on the hard courts of Pattaya open. Sania didn’t play her best tennis but found a way to win the match.

The first set is filled with errors from both players exchanging a series of breaks. Sania lead 5-3 in the first set and served for the set, but lost her serve with bad service game commiting 4 double faults. Sania got the break back immediately in the next game to win the set 6-4.

In the second set, Sania couldn’t find answer for Tamarine’s solid ground strokes that clipped the lines. Tammie won the set easily 6-2 in 26 minutes.

In the third set, Sania played aggressively and dictated the points. Sania served much better in the third set and won the set 6-1

After the match, Sania said:

“It was an up-and-down match. It was just a matter of who controlled the points better. I was happy to get through the match when I was not at my best,’’

“I knew she could be very dangerous, especially when she plays at home. I’m happy to beat someone who is the crowd favorite and used to be in the top 20,’’

“I had to counter the wind and that was one of the reasons for the inconsistency, but I’m happy to get through to the quarters.”

Sania will next face the third-seeded Mara Santangelo of Italy in the quarter final. Sania never played Mara before. “She is great. She has a different kind of style. I just have to take a rest and get ready for the match,” Sania said.

Sania is making her second quarter-final appearance this season after reaching the semis in Hobart before losing to Anna Chakvetadze of Russia.

Other players advanced to the quarter finals today are fourth-seeded Peng Shuai of China and Sybille Bammer of Austria.

Sania will play her Quarter final match against Mara on Friday.

http://mirza.lawntennisnews.com/

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Sania Mirza, Pattaya open’s No.5 seed defeated Colombia’s Catalina Castaño, her first round opponent in straight sets 7-6 6-0.Sania started the first set tentatively and had an up and down set but survived a tough fight against Colombia’s Catalina Castaño.

Sania dropped her first serve with a double-fault and trialed 0-2, started playing better and raced to a 5-3 lead. Sania was struggling to find any consistency, sometimes hitting some impressive winners with her big forehand, but also going for broke too often and making unnecessary errors. Sania had a set point when she was serving at 5-4, but unable to close out the set. Sania Mirza Pattaya Open first round

Sania played impressively in the tiebreak and won the tiebreak quite easily with a score of 7-1.
The Indian tennis icon carried the momentum to the second set and unleashed a more powerful and consistent game and won all the games in the set by overwhelming her opponent.

Here is what Sania had to say after the match.

“I started a little slow, but you’re getting into a new tournament, new balls, new atmosphere, and I’d never played her, so I was trying get a feel of how she plays,” Sania explained. “I should have finished the first set at 5-4, but from the tiebreak onwards I played like I wanted to play. I stopped giving any easy points.

Two of the Top 4 seeds were also in action Monday; with No.3 seed Mara Santangelo of Italy outlasting up-and-coming Slovakian Jarmila Gajdosova, 64 57 62.

No.4 seed Peng Shuai of China defeated Chinese Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei, advancing to the second round with a 61 62 victory.

Other notable first round winners include Australian Alicia Molik cruised to victory against Ukrainian Kateryna Bondarenko, 62 62.

Read more about Sania Mirza: http://mirza.lawntennisnews.com/

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After his dissapointing showing at the Australian Open Marcos Baghdatis managed to regain some confidence by capturing the second title of his career in Zagreb. Baghdatis denied top seed Ivan Ljubicic the chance to grab the second successive title in his home country.

Quarterfinal results Zagreb:

Ivan Ljubicic (CRO,1) d. Thomas Johansson (SWE) 7-6(8) 6-7(8) 7-6(4)
Mikhail Youzhny (RUS,4) d. Marc Gicquel (FRA) 7-5 6-2
Alexander Peya (AUT,Q) d. Michael Llodra (FRA) 6-3 6-3
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP,2) d. Arnaud Clement (FRA,8) 6-2 6-7(2) 7-6(5)

Semifinal results Zagreb:

Ivan Ljubicic (CRO,1) d. Mikhail Youzhny (RUS,4) 2-6 6-3 7-5
Marcos Baghdatis (CYP,2) d. Alexander Peya (AUT,Q) 6-4 6-3

Final result Zagreb:

Marcos Baghdatis (CYP,2) d. Ivan Ljubicic (CRO,1) 7-6(4) 4-6 6-4

Final doubles result Zagreb:

Michael Kohlmann/Alexander Waske (GER) d. Frantisek Cermak/Jaroslav Levinsky (CZE,4) 7-6(5) 4-6 10-5 (match tie-break)

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Swiss Martina Hingis exacted revenge over Serbian Ana Ivanovic, 6-4, 6-2, in one hour and ten minutes to win the Toray Pan Pacific Open title for a record fifth time. Hingis and Ivanovic are now even with one win apiece in their career head-to-head wins.

Hingis won the first two games of the set for an early 2-0. Just then, Ivanovic showed she’s no pushover by holding her serve and breaking Hingis’ serve. Ivanovic never allowed Hingis to score a point during the fourth game, to level the score at 2-2. Both players tried to break each other’s serve but to no avail. Ivanovic and Hingis held their respective serves twice, at 4-4. Never wanting to let her impending win slip her hands, Hingis stepped up her game, use the “tactician” inside her to outplay Ivanovic and win the next two games for a first set win at 6-4.

Hingis, with her momentum and confidence still intact, relied heavily on her groundstrokes. Hingis went on to lead Ivanovic 4-0. Ivanovic and Hingis held their respective serves in the next two games, at 5-1. Hingis never got a chance to break Ivanovic’s serve as her Serbian opponent played a love service game and made Hingis serve for the match, which she did.

Hingis’ fifth title at Tokyo is her 43rd title over-all . She broke the tie she shared with American Lindsay Davenport for the most title at this event.

“I’m very proud of my record here,” Hingis said. “I knew going into today’s match that I could make the record if I won.”

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