Confident Sania looking to match 2005 show

Having made a winning start at the US Open Grand Slam, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza was confident of matching her best performance at the Flushing Meadows, the fourth round appearance in 2005.

Having made a winning start at the US Open Grand Slam, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza was confident of matching her best performance at the Flushing Meadows, the fourth round appearance in 2005.

“That’s the goal. If I don’t make it, I think I’ll have a bad match or I’ll be unlucky not to make it,” Sania said after surviving the first round scare against Estonia’s Kaia Kanepi. Sania won 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-1.

Sania admitted she did not play to her potential yesterday and felt relieved after making the next round. “I felt a bit up and down the whole match. It wasn’t the best match I’ve played by far but the most important thing is getting through to the next round.

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“You have to know how to turn it up when you really need to. It’s the first match of a Slam. It’s always hard. I knew it would be tough,” she said.

If Sania manges to get past American Laura Granville in the next round, her possible third round opponent would be Russian sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze, against whom she lost twice last month.

The 20-year-old Hyderabadi feels she could have made the top-20 had injury not forced her to be out of reckoning at the start of the season.

“If I didn’t have that injury at the beginning of the year maybe I would be top-20 by now. That’s life. I shouldn’t get too greedy. I’m having a great year. I’m playing my best tennis. I’m learning and improving every day,” she added.

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Sania also hoped that her success at the international level would draw more fellow Indians to the sport. “It will be good to see more Indians play in international arena.”

Venus made to work

New York: Venus Williams was made to work a little harder than expected at the US Open on Wednesday when she battled past Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-4, 6-2 to reach the third round. The Wimbledon champion and 12th seed hit six double faults and was a little ragged but won through to a meeting with 21st seed Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine or Greek Eleni Daniilidou.

Fifth seed Ana Ivanovic recovered from a slow start to beat Aravane Rezai of France 6-3, 6-1. The 19-year-old Serb trailed 3-1 in the opening set but stormed back to set up a meeting with Russian Vera Dushevina. Meanwhile Marat Safin came through a tough opener to beat in-form Canadian qualifier Frank Dancevic 7-5, 7-6, 7-6.

Maria Sharapova shanked a backhand wide, prompting her opponent to leap in the air and pump her fist as though she won the match. That little celebration by 51st-ranked Roberta Vinci of Italy was for winning one game, allowing her to narrow Sharapova’s lead to 6-0, 5-1. A few minutes and one hold of serve later, Sharapova was into the second round. Andy Roddick won his first round match, following Sharapova on court and beating Justin Gimelstob 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-3.