Sania Out of the Open, Paes Advances to Fourth Round
It looks as if Sania will not even mirror last year’s singles advance to the fourth round in the doubles competition. In the second round, all looked promising as she and partner Liezel Huber of South Africa made a striking victory, 6-0 6-3, against France’s Stephanie Cohen-Aloro and Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. This success in the second round rocketed the pair into the third round, where they battled against sixth-seeded Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic and Francesca Schiavone of Italy.
Here the pair met their match, battling valiantly but losing 6-3, 3-6, 5-7. Schiavone was Mirza’s undoing in the doubles competition earlier last week, and plays an excellent game. The doubles competition was Sania’s last hope, after losing a similarly tough struggle in the mixed doubles, with partner Pavel Vizner of the Czech Republic, to Katarina Srebotnik of Slovania and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia and Montenegro, 2-6, 6-3, 7-10.
Meanwhile, Leander Paes keeps the tricolor flying at the US Open, having advanced to the quarterfinals in men’s doubles. He and his Czech partner Martin Damm glided past Jarkko Nieminen of Finland and Graydon Oliver of the USA, winning 6-4, 6-2 in the third round. The sixth-seeded duo have executed equally facile victories over the Czech combo Petr Pala and Robin Vik, 6-1 6-2, in the first round, and Alexander Peya of Austria and Bjorn Phau of Germany, 6-3, 7-6(4) in the second round.