Sania-Pascual move to pre-Qtrs of Oz Open

Melbourne, Jan 22: Hyderabad girl Sania Mirza took one step forward to reclaim her spot among the top women’s tennis players of the world by reaching the pre-quarter finals of the women’s doubles at the Australian Open on Friday.Sania, fighting to find the form, which had at one time catapulted her to the top 30 women players in the world, combined with her Spanish partner Virginia Ruano Pascual to beat the Swiss-Italian pair of Timea Bacsinszky and Tathiana Garbin 7-6(3) 6-3 in their second match at Melboune Park.

The Indo-Spanish pair was trailing 1-4 in the first set but they held on to their nerves and serves to claim the first set.They broke their opponent’s serve once in the second set to claim the match.Seeded 10th, Sania-Pascual will now take on the winners of the tie between Melinda Czink-Natalie Grandin versus  Alisa Kleybanova-Francesca Schiavone.For India, it was a mixed day with Leander Paes too advancing in the Grand Slam event while the other Indian pair of Somdev Devvarman - Prakash Amritraj crashing out of the tournament.