The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sania-Vania out of doubles event

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Oct 16, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Sania-Vania out of doubles event

Osaka: Second seed Sania Mirza and Vania King suffered a shock straight-set defeat at the hands of unseeded French pair of Julie Coin and Mathilde Johansson to crash out of the doubles event of the Japan Open here on Thursday.

The Indo-American pair lost lost 4-6, 2-6 in the quarterfinals of the $220,000 WTA hard court event after battling for one hour and seven minutes.

Sania got 70 ranking points for making the last eight stage and will share $1650 prize money with Vania.

To survive in the event, Sania will have to beat World No. 13 and second seed Marion Bartoli of France in the singles competition on Friday.

Sania and Vania had plenty of chances against their rivals in both the sets but could not cash in. They dropped serve twice in the first set and missed equal number of chances on their opponents’ serve. They saved five breakpoints and were successful in breaking the French pair once but that was not enough.

The second set too saw the second seeds missing many chances as they squandered three breakpoints and dropped serve thrice.

Wozniacki moves up

Meanwhile, top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark overpowered Britain’s Katie O’Brien 6-0, 6-1 to advance to the singles quarterfinals. Wozniacki converted six of nine break points in a match that lasted just 44 minutes at Utsubo Tennis Center.

The U.S. Open finalist will face Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak in the quarterfinals. Sixth-seeded Wozniak struggled past Taiwan’s Chang Kai-chen 7-5, 7-6(2).

Davydenko in quarterfinals

Sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko got a sixth win in six meetings against Fernando Gonzalez to reach the quarterfinals of the Shanghai Masters with a 6-3, 7-5 victory.

As the debate about the length of the men’s season continued, however, Stanislas Wawrinka and Gael Monfils became the sixth and seventh players to retire injured from a match at the $3.24 million tournament. Swede Robin Soderling later upset error-prone fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-3 in their third round encounter under the open roof of the Qizhong central arena.

The results: At Osaka: WTA Japan Open: Singles: Second round: Jill Craybas bt Mathilde Johansson 2-6, 6-2, 6-0; Aleksandra Wozniak bt Chang Kai-chen 7-5, 7-6(2); Caroline Wozniacki bt Katie O’Brien 6-0, 6-1; Samantha Stosur bt Akiko Morigami 6-1, 6-2. Doubles: Quarterfinals: Julie Coin & Mathilde Johansson bt Sania Mirza & Vania King 6-4, 6-2.

At Shanghai: ATP Shanghai Masters: Third round: Nikolay Davydenko bt Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 7-5; Radek Stepanek bt Stanislas Wawrinka 3-6, 7-6(5), 4-2 (retd.); Robin Soderling bt Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-3, 6-3; Ivan Ljubicic bt Gael Monfils 6-2, 3-0 (retd.); Feliciano Lopez bt Juergen Melzer 5-7, 7-6(3), 6-1; Novak Djokovic bt Rainer Schuettler 6-4, 6-2; Gilles Simon bt Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-4; Rafael Nadal bt Tommy Robredo 6-1, 6-4. — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport