By IANS
Los Angeles : Virginie Razzano of France halted Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza’s progress in the $600,000 East West Bank Classic here with a straight sets win.
Ranked 22 places behind the Indian’s WTA ranking of 30, the 24-year-old Frenchwoman needed an hour and 26 minutes for the 6-1, 7-6 (8-6) victory to advance to the quarter-finals.
The players had only one ace each but Razzano served a whopping nine double faults in the match and still managed to scrape through, thanks to her winning 85 percent of her first serve points.
Mirza, who also had four double faults against her name, could win only 58 percent of her first serve points.
The Indian continues in the tournament’s doubles competition where she is paired with American Bethanie Mattek and faces the second seeded pair of Renee Stubbs of Russia and Kveta Paschke of the Czech Republic in the quarter-finals to be played Friday.
Razzano’s singles quarter-finals opponent will be the fourth seeded Russian Nadia Petrova, who made short work of 15th seeded Slovakian Katarina Srebotnik, winning the third round clash 6-1, 6-2.
Top seed Maria Sharapova continues to struggle in the tournament as she was extended for second straight match. The Russian needed more than two and a half hours to quell the challenge of Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands.
Sharapova won 7-6 (7-4), 6-7 (3-7), 6-4 and in the quarter-finals faces fellow Russian Elena Dementieva, the ninth seed. Dementieva was leading fifth seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-3, 4-1 when her opponent retired because of respiratory problems.
Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, the second seed, had no such trouble as she breezed past the 13th seeded Austrian Sybille Bammer 6-2, 6-1 in less than an hour to book her place in the quarter-finals.
The Serbian next faced unseeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who brushed aside Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine 6-1, 6-2.
In the fourth quarter-final, third seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over 16th seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, clashes with Russian Maria Kirilenko who defeated Argentina’s Gisela Dulko 6-3, 6-4.