TheSportsCampus

Indian tennis ace, Sania Mirza returned to action after a couple of weeks off at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo last weekend.

Coming through two rounds of qualifying, Mirza, ranked 65th in world earned herself a second meeting with Jie Zheng of China. Despite not being in the best of form in recent times, Mirza did have the edge going into the match with the world no.32, having already played a couple of matches in the run-up, and having beaten the Chinese star in their only previous encounter at the Hyderabad Open in her breakthrough season - 2005.

In a tight two hour plus battle that followed, Mirza broke the Zheng serve thrice enroute to claiming the opening set 7-5. Her recipe for success in that set was pretty simple as she climbed into anything short, especially taking advantage of some shabby second serves from Zheng.

However, India's highest ranked female tennis player ever had a nightmare second set as she won just 8 points on her own serve, and failed to hold on to even a single service game. The final set was a tight affair, with both ladies improving their performance on their first serve. Though Mirza took Zheng to deuce a number of timings, she could break the Chinese woman's serve just once in the decider, failing to save either of the two breakpoints on her own serve. The missed opportunities proved costly as Zheng booked a place in the second round against 8th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, with a 5-7, 6-2, 6-3 win.

Over in Kuala Lumpur, Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi of Pakistan produced some breathtaking tennis to beat the 4th seeded pair of Paul Hanley and Simon Aspelin in straight sets, 6-3, 6-4, in the first round of the men's doubles at the Proton Malaysian Open.

The Indo-Pak wildcard pair served exceptionally well in the 67 minute contest, saving both break opportunities that their opponents had on their serve, whilst breaking once in either set to secure the win. They will face the winner of the clash between Karol Beck / Jordan Kerr and Igor Kunitsyn / Jaroslav Levinsky in round 2.

Final Scores:

Jie Zheng d. Sania Mirza 5-7, 6-2, 6-3
Bopanna / Qureshi d. Aspelin / Hanley 6-3, 6-4