By IANS
New York : Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza weathered a 24-hour rain delay before cruising into the women’s singles second round of the Pilot Pen tournament at New Haven, Connecticut.
In one of the only two women’s matches completed Tuesday because of rain, the Indian defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-3, 6-3 in the hour and 15-minute long first round contest. The match had started Monday but after only one game, won by the Spaniard, rain forced the players off the court.
World number 29 Sania served the only ace of the match but also had two double faults against her name while her opponent saved seven of the 12 break points she faced.
The Indian was also broken twice in the match but managed to even things out immediately as both players struggled to hold serve right through the scrappy contest.
Sania next faces eighth seeded Ukainian Alona Bondarenko, who made short of Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) in a first round clash Monday.
The Indian has also entered the doubles event here, joining forces with Mara Santangelo of Italy. The Indo-Italian paired has been seeded third in the event and is drawn to play the American pair of Corina Morariu and Meghann Shaughnessy.
In the only other completed women’s match Tuesday, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland out-duelled Ai Sugiyama of Japan 7-5 (7-5), 3-6, 6-4 in a first round match that lasted just over two-and-a-half hours.