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Sania Mirza won her fourth match on the trot to cruise to the second round of US Open but it was an early exit for Somdev Devvarman, who lost his opening round in the men’s singles event.

Sania, who entered the women’s singles as a qualifier, scored an easy 6-3, 6-2 win over fellow qualifier Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal in the first-round match.

Somdev, who earned a direct entry into a Grand Slam for the first time, went down fighting against the South Africa’s Kevin Anderson 3-6 4-6 3-6 in his first round in the men’s singles event.

The defeat means that Somdev has not gone beyond the first round in Grand Slams this season.

He had failed to qualify for the Australian Open and the Wimbledon and lost in the first round of the French Open.

A second round appearance at the U.S. Open last year remains his best performance in the Slams.

It took Sania one hour and 17 minutes to dispatch her rival and set up a second round clash with Russian 20th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

“For me, the fact that I am still capable of going on court and winning four matches in a row gives me a lot of confidence that I still have the ability,” the number one female Indian player said after her win.

“I am just going to enjoy it. I was happy when I won the first round of the qualifiers and I am happy again today. I love playing here on the hard courts in New York and always seem to do well here,” she added.

Sania was forced to go through the qualifiers of Grand Slam for the first time since 2005 due to low ranking.

Poor form and wrist injury dented her ranking heavily as she is languishing at 159 in world.
When Sania Mirza steps on court on Monday for her first round match against fellow qualifier Michelle Larcher De Brito from Portugal, one will be hard pressed to ask her what to do first – get a pair of ear plugs or whack the ball as intensely as the Portuguese? The young De Brito has quite the reputation on the circuit thanks to her bubbling game and her ear crushing noises which could break a decibel meter nearby to pieces. Mirza’s chief concern will be to maintain focus in a match where she could be easily bothered. It is one thing to play against a screechy Williams or Azarenka but a different ball game when it comes to Larcher De Brito.

The seventeen year old believes her best assets on a tennis court are her movement ground strokes. With hard and grass being her favourite surface, she will be at her strongest at the US Open. Her results this year have not been good. The summer stretch saw her play only two tournaments – Stanford and San Diego, in both she fell in the qualifying. Additionally she is coming back from an injury scare to her right shoulder, something which led her to withdraw from a tournament in Palermo.

Ranked 176, De Brito has had a relatively calm route through the qualifiers much like Mirza. A three set final round was preceded by two very easy through fares finished off in straights sets in the first two rounds. Both the women seem match fit, and Mirza’s concerns with her wrist seem to be put on the back burner which is certainly good news for her team and fans.

The match will certainly draw a sizeable crowd. The quality of the match will be uneven as it could be strewn with unforced errors and highly prized flashy winners. Mirza’s forehands must come to her rescue if she wants to make a sizeable dent in De Brito’s game and spirits early on in the match. Mirza’s experience in the top league must count for something. The focus will again be on Mirza’s serve. Of the three matches, her serves have been somewhere close to an acceptable mark only in the second match and she must commit to not breaking down under tense moments. As both have quite the reputation on the circuit, none of their games will be alien to the other, though they have never played each other on the WTA Tour before.

With rankings not being the area of concern, as both have come from the qualifying pool, and both showing equal contempt towards numerical data, one should expect an intense encounter. As far as final predictions goes, the heart and mind both say Mirza in three sets after a lot of drama. After all, nothing comes in Mirza’s life without a healthy dose of drama

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This post was submitted by rishi maurya.

Thanks to www.thehindu.com