Sania enters doubles third round

NEW YORK: India's Sania Mirza entered the third round of the women's doubles at the US Open, but lost the mixed doubles battle in the first round.

Sania and Liezel Huber of South Africa, seeded 11, beat France's Stephanie Cohen-Aloro and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain 6-0, 6-3 in the second round at Flushing Meadows on Sunday.

They had beaten the American pair of Angela Haynes and Neha Uberoi in the second round.

However, pairing with Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic, Sania lost the mixed doubles battle in the first round itself to Katarina Srebotnik of Slovania and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Montenegro, but not before extending them into the third set.

They lost to the sixth seeded pair 2-6, 6-3, 7-10 after a tough long struggle.

Sania was knocked out of the women's singles by 14th seed Italian Francesca Schiavone Thursday. The Indian star went down 7-5, 1-6, 2-6, in the second round match.