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Sania makes a winning start in Tokyo

By IANS

Tokyo : India’s Sania Mirza started her comeback after a long lay-off due to injury with a winning start to her Japan Open campaign by beating local player Ayumi Morita 6-0, 6-4 in the first round of the Japan Open tennis tournament.

In the second round, second seeded Sania faces Australian Casey Dellacqua, who notched up an impressive 6-4, 6-0 win over France’s Severene Brémond Monday.

Mirza has been in fine form over the past few months, compiling 15 wins over the North American hardcourt season and subsequently breaking into the Top 30 for the first time in her career.

In the Indian star’s previous visit to the Ariake Colosseum back in 2005, she made it all the way to the semi-finals before falling to Tatiana Golovin.

She made the perfect start this time around when she raced through the opening set against Morita without dropping a game.

Morita came into her home event fresh from a quarter-final run in Seoul and the 17-year-old began to find her range at the start of the second set.

However, Mirza weathered the storm and moved into the round of 16 with a straight sets triumph.

In the other half of the draw, the Czech Republic’s Klara Zakopalova caused the week’s first upset when she ousted the seventh seed, Aiko Nakamura. After starting the year ranked outside the top 100, the 25-year-old has steadily moved up the rankings and the 6-3, 6-4 win over her Japanese foe was her 39th match win of 2007.