Indian Tennis' new heartthrob Sania Mirza, who is acquiring quite a reputation on the WTA tour, is into the quarterfinals of the Dubai Duty-Free Open. The 97th ranked Sania overcame an ankle injury to defeat US Open champion, Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 6-2. She will now play Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinals. Ten Sports, a Dubai based sports channel will provide a live telecast of the match.
It has been quite a year for the 18-year-old Indian on the WTA Tour so far. First came a third round appearance in the Australian Open where she lost to the eventual champ, Serena Williams. Then a first WTA title in front of her home crowd at the Hyderabad Open. In fact her appearance at the Dubai Open was in doubt following an ankle injury that she picked up during the course of her victory at Hyderabad.
In her match against the world No. 7, Kuznetsova, Sania had to take a 10-minute break in order to get some attention to her ankle.
'My ankle was killing me. It was the third time in three weeks and I was crying because I was in so much pain. I was disturbed because always my ankles are getting injured" Sania said after the match.
She was down 0-4 and 30-40 at this time. A painkiller & some tape to wound up the ankle worked miracles as she pounded out the hapless Kuznetsova with powerful forehand shots & better back court play. She finally won 6-4 6-2.
'I started well and she was nervous, but I didn't do anything to make her play like that,' Kuznetsova admitted.
The scheduled telecast of the quarterfinals to be played in two sessions is as follows: evening session 4:00 pm to 6:00 pm, followed by the night session from 8:30 pm to 10:30 pm. |
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment