Sania staves off Mashona challenge

NEW YORK: Sania Mirza overcame her own fitness problems and a volatile opponent to clinch a thrilling first round win in the women's singles at the US Open here.

Sania, severely hampered by a strained abdominal muscle, needed to dig deep into her reserves, on Monday, to beat 19-year-old Mashona Washington of USA 7-6 (6), 6-7 (6), 6-4 in two hours and 13 minutes.

Whereas the 18-year-old Indian was not in her best fitness, Mashona's fragile temperament proved to be a counterpoint, making it a melodramatic contest.

Both the teenagers seemed to be conscious of the big stage and the early phase of the match was spent in testing each other's weaknesses and strength.

While Sania played a steady game, Mashona blew hot and cold. Sania went up, breaking Mashona in the first game but the American bounced back with two successive breaks to go 4-2 up.

But serving for the set, Mashona was broken. In the tiebreaker, Mashona's nerves frayed and she could not convert her two set points.

The second set was a ding-dong battle that saw Sania fail to close the match after going 3-1 up.

Mashona did well to come back twice from a break behind while Sania hung on to deny a break in the 12th game and pushed the set into a tiebreaker.

Again Sania raced to a 3-0 lead only to allow Mashona to claw back. Mashona converted her on third set point to make it one-set all.

In the decider, Sania broke Mashona in the first game, but surprisingly failed to put away at least two simple forehands, always her strong point.

Fortunately for Sania, Mashona was error-prone. After levelling the score at 3-3, the American committed two double faults to hand Sania a 5-4 lead.

The Hyderabadi girl had to stamp out a last minute challenge from Mashona, who forced three more break points. Sania finally clinched the issue when Mashona put a forehand wide.