By DPA
Carlsbad (California) : India's Sania Mirza has claimed a challenging psychological victory, overcoming friend and doubles partners Shahar Peer 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 at the Acura Classic.
"Neither of us was happy to see that we had drawn the other," said the 20-year-old winner Tuesday, who lost Sunday's final at Stanford to Russian Anna Chakvetadze. "It was the toughest first round I could have had. I played well under the circumstances."
Mirza, ranked 31st with one WTA title from 2005, earned an early upset over the 12th seeded Peer as the popular tournament goes into its final edition, a victim of a 2008 calendar shake up which saw it buried.
Mirza said that she got anxious as she aimed to take care of business in just two sets to save some energy.
That plan had to be revised as Peer rallied in the eighth game of the second set and eventually took the tight contest into a deciding third.
"I wanted to finish in two, but you have to change your attitude if you don't do it," said Mirza. "You can't focus on what didn't happen."
Mirza will next play Greek Eleni Daniilidou at an event where the top eight seeds received first-round byes.
Maria Sharapova heads the field ahead of Serb Jelena Jankovic.
Mirza has made a solid start to the North American hardcourt summer with a Cincinnati semi-final and the Stanford title shot.
Two seeds moved through into the second round.
Number 15 Sybille Bammer of Austria beat Ukranian Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4, 7-6 (7-5) while 16th-seeded Czech Lucie Safarova ousted American Meilen Tu 6-4, 6-3.