Sania stands tall amid a ruin of toppling seeds

Kolkata, Sep 19 (UNI) Regining queen of Indian Tennis Sania Mirza today gave a display of silken touch and raw power to move into the second round in just 53 minutes, on a day when three seeds Karolina Sprem, Yuliana Fedak and Anastassia Rodionova were shown the door in the Sunfeast Open here.

Mirza destroyed compatriot Rushmi Chakravarthi 6-0, 6-4.

Mirza playing against qualifier and veteran in the circuit Rushmi Chakravarthi decimated her 6-0 in the first set, breaking her in the first, third and fifth games. A barrage of forehand down the lines and cross-court volleys felled the vetran Indian against whom Sania already has a 2-1 win record.

Rushmi, ranked 457 in the world, did try to put up a semblance of resistance in the second set, but a break in the fifth game was all she needed to seal the match in her favour. The second game saw Rushmi coming to the net more often and that helped her win a few games with drop volleys and down the line backhands, but Sania soon changed her game and a few charges to the net settled the scores in her favour.

Later she said, ''I had a good match. There were a few nervous moments. But I am glad that I was able to overcome that.'' ''I was a little rusty but this is the first tie and maybe I play better with nerves,'' she said.

She also praised the city crowd and hoped to make amends for the early exit last time round.

Earlier, a whiff of Italian arrogance was on display as Alberta Brianti rocketed into the second round with a power-packed 6-4, 6-2 win, and in the process, packed third seed Yulina Fedak out in a first round.

Alberta Brianti, world No.127, whose only claim to fame so far was her win over Sania Mirza in Montreal last August, took exactly 78 minutes to display a game of power tennis to make complete mockery of WTA ratings as Fedak found herself on the odd side of the court.

For the Ukrainian, this was an encore of sorts. Last year, Russian wild card entrant Elena Likhovtseva had stopped her run with a straight set defeat in the first round.

This was the beginning of the day of upsets. The next seed to bite dust was eighth seed Anastassia Rodionova of Russia who was beaten in a three set thriller by compatriot Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 3-6, 3-6.

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