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February 14, Sania Mirza of India moved into the prequarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson International Bangalore WTA tournament event after winning her first round match against Slovak Martina Sucha. Defeating Martina Sucha 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 in the first round of the Sony Ericsson International, Sania showed her improved strength.

The oppents for both Sania Mirza of India and Martina Sucha of Slovakia were the insects and moths swarming all over poor line calls and unforced errors. After sligging it out for over two hours, Sania carved out a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory and entered the second round.

The tournament’s No.2 seed and 49th ranked Sania possibly could not have had a better opening round. Sania was kept on her toes by Martina Sucha ranked 98 and seeded No.13. Even as she tried to get behind, she either hit long or netted and she came up numerous double faults too.

Martina Sucha made the mistake of hitting the ball straight at Sania on occasions she failed to get them on her backhand. Sania dropped four games in the second set as Martina Sucha forced the match into the decider.

Sania said that it was only then that things started working for me as I began to swing a lot and played to her strength and she had fun.

Earlier Japan’s rising star Yurika Sema, ranked 273, stormed into he quarterfinals of the Sony Ericsson International WTA Tennis event here with a 1-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over 115th-ranked Yulia Beygelzimer of Ukraine.

India was defeated by Sri Lanka by five runs in the second ODI at the Madhavrao Scindia Stadium in Rajkot. India were restricted to 252/9 in their 50 overs, after Sri Lanka had posted 257/8. Dravid won the toss in the morning and put Sri Lanka to bat first. For India, Zaheer Khan was replaced by Anil Kumble.

Saurav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar mame 62 and 54 runs respectively. MS.Dhoni (48) made a valiant attempt to take India home. But, his wicket brilliantly caught by Maharoof in the outfield. With this the Sri Lankans deservingly take a 1-0 lead.

For Sri Lanka, the bowling performances of Farveez Maharoof, who bagged 3 for 37 and Malinga Bandara, who picked 2 for 36 was a real confidence booster. India faltered despite the efforts of Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Dinesh Kaarthick.

India lost their last five wickets for 17 runs in the space of 27 balls, leaving the 18,000 spectators in a state of shock. Left-arm spinner Sanath Jayasuriya’s bowling put the brakes on India by dismissing Dhoni for 48.

Ganguly and Tendulkar put on 100 runs in 122 balls for the third wicket to put India on the victory path. Ganguly scored 62 runs from 79 balls with six boundaries and a six. Dhoni and Kaarthick tried to rescue Indian team by putting on a sixth-wicket stand of 66.

Patel and Sreesanth rocked the Sri Lankan top order, by reducing them to 58/4. Even the in-form Sanath Jayasuriya (11), who scored a fiery 63 in the last game, did not survive, edging a Patel ourswinger to wicketkeeper Dhoni.

February 9, India’s Sania Mirza reached her second semi-final of the year by defeating Italy’s Mara Santangelo 6-4, 7-6 at the Pattaya Open.

Sania Mirza made an bad start against Mara Santangelo, dropping her first two service games with double-faults. Mara Santangelo served well and followed up with strong groundstrokes to take a 4-1 lead before Mirza finally gained a foothold.

With Mara Santangelo failing to maintain her early level, Mirza fought back to 4-4 and then broke to lead 5-4 when a strong return forced Santangelo into a backhand error. The second set was as closely contested as the first, with Santangelo breaking to lead 5-3. Mirza then went on to claim the tiebreak 7-4.

Mirza told reporters that Mara Santangelo had complex to play against. She said that she did not know any player like her and she was trying to figure how she played and her strenghths and weaknesses. She also said that she had some bad serves but she got them right when she needed them and it motivated her to play better.

Sania will meet Gisela Dulko in Saturday’s semis after the Argentine sixth seed eased past Australian Nicole Pratt 6-2 6-3. Austalian Sybille Bammer took almost three hours to get past Solvakia’s Martina Sucha 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 to reach the second WTA semi-final.