Sania prevails over Kloesel in an error-filled match

Kolkata: On a wet Thursday evening in Kolkata, it rained errors at the Netaji Indoor Stadium, with both Sania Mirza and Sandra Kloesel displaying almost painfully similar games in their second round encounter. Both their serves often touched levels of absurdity, as they repeatedly treated their service games like slippery objects (seven breaks in the first set, and five in the second, said it all).

Both their groundstrokes were schizophrenic, to say the least, with a series of atrocious errors interspersed with an incredible winner or two. With the margin of their errors leaving very little to the linesmen's purview, what separated the two was Sania's solidity in the second set, where she made fewer errors than her extremely erratic opponent, and registered a 7-5, 6-3 at the Sunfeast Open WTA tennis tournament.

Nightmarish start

The nightmarish first set had everything. Frenzy exchange of breaks, huge double faults followed by an ace and forehand cross-court and down-the-line winners succeeding an all-court spray of errors. The game that lengthened the first set was the seventh game, with Sania up 4-2, and Kloesel serving.

Getting away with the poorest of serves, the German was aided by her opponent's eagerness and `lack of patience' as most people would call it, as Sania messed up some easy chances, and a chance to go up 5-2. The games that followed were long, but Sania always looked the better player, showing better variety in finishing off the points.

To Sania's credit despite receiving a code of conduct warning for racket abuse in the first set, her frustration levels did not seep into her game, as the flurry of breaks continued. Up 6-5, and serving for the set, some pathetic returning by her opponent clinched the first set for the 19-year-old, much to the delight of the vociferous crowd.

Better display

The second set was better for Sania. Despite being 1-3 down, she feasted on the next five games with some clean hitting, against an opponent who was wilting.

"I wasn't too keen on a third set, and I'm glad I finished it in two sets. I was a little more solid in the second set. Without being defensive, I tried cutting down on the errors, which was what helped me," said Sania.

On her quarterfinal clash with Aravane Rezai, she said, "she is very talented, and has had some great results. Both of us are big hitters, and we should see some hard-hitting tennis."

Veteran Nicole Pratt was defeated in three sets, by Russian Olga Poutchkova, 2-6, 6-2, 2-6, in their second-round match. A 1-1 deadlock showed signs of a tight third set, but Pratt, running on reserve fuel in the decider, could not retrieve her opponent's shots, and was simply left watching.