By IANS
Los Angeles : Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza stunned former world number one Martina Hingis 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 to move within one win of making her fourth quarter-final appearance in as many weeks.
Sania sealed the second round victory in the East West Bank Classic Tuesday night on her fourth match point for her second win over the seventh seeded Hingis of Switzerland in four meetings.
For a place in the quarter-finals, Sania meets the winner of the second round match between her doubles partner Shahar Peer of Israel and Virginie Razzano of France.
The 10th seeded Peer defeated wild card entrant Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-3 while Razzano ousted Zan Yi of China 6-4, 7-5.
Also among the shock losers Tuesday night was Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli of France, beaten 6-7 (2-7), 3-6 by Maria Kirilenko of Russia. Bartoli was seeded sixth in the tournament.
Sania, who climbed to her career-best world ranking of 30 this week and won against Hingis, winner of five Grand Slam titles, continues her run of success in the US hardcourt season, which has seen her at least in the last eight of every tournament in the past three weeks.
The Indian, who turns 21 in November, reached the quarter-finals at Cincinnati, went all the way to the final in Stanford and then made it to the semi-finals at San Diego last week when she lost to the eventual winner Maria Sharapova, the top seed here.
“To beat one of the quickest players on the tour and to have to dig deep to do it, that feels great,” Mirza said after the victory. “It tells me that I can do it again.”
Earlier, the Indian had swept past Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada in straight sets 6-3, 6-2 to set up the second round meeting with Hingis, back on tour after a yearlong break due to problems with her foot.
Sania served two aces and also made four double faults compared to an ace and a double fault for the Swiss. But the Indian won the crucial points, cashing in on three of the break points she held.
Hingis, who had a first round bye as one of the tournament’s top eight seeds, also broke Sania twice but the Indian managed to run her opponent close and came out trumps in a tense decider.
Other results:
9-Elena Dementieva (RUS) bt Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 6-3, 6-1
15-Katarina Srebotnik (SLO) bt Bethanie Mattek (USA) 6-4, 7-5
Mara Santangelo (ITA) bt Anastasia Rodionova (RUS) 6-1, 7-6(7-3)
Ai Sugiyama (JPN) bt Camille Pin (FRA) 5-7, 6-3, 6-3
Victoria Azarenka (BLR) bt Alberta Brianti (ITA) 6-3, 6-3
Peng Shuai (CHN) bt Yaroslava Shvedova (RUS) 6-3, 6-4
Katerina Bondarenko (UKR) bt 8-Dinara Safina (RUS) 6-2, 7-5