Sania Mirza advances to second round at 2006 Australian Open

January 17, 2006 (Melbourne):

Sania Mirza, (aged 19yrs 2months & the first Indian Tennis player to be seeded at any Grand Slam event), seeded 32, defeated the 156th ranked qualifier, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 in the first round match played at the Show Court 2 of Melbourne Park on 17th Jan and advanced to the second round of Women's Singles event at 2006 Australian Open being held in Melbourne.

	Istset	IIndset
Sania Mirza IND	7(8)	6
Victoria Azarenka BLR	6(6)	2
Elapsed Time by Set	52	29

In the first set, Sania lost her game when she was serving at 5-all and went down 5-6. Azarenka then lost her serve, and the first set went to tie-break.

She lost the first point on her serve in the tie-break, and then won the next four points to lead 4-1 in the tie-break. Now, she lost the next four points to go down 4-5, with Azarenka to serve for the next two points; which she won to go up 6-5. She lost the next point on her serve and then won the next point on her serve for the tie-break score to read 7-6 in her favour. In the next rally on Azarenka's serve, the linesman called Azarenka's shot in, which was accurately over-ruled by the umpire and Sania Mirza won the tie-break 8-6 and clinched the first set after a gruelling 52 minutes of play.

In the second set, Sania broke Azarenka in the very first game and held her service in the next game, which went to deuce and was tightly fought. In the seventh game she again broke Azarenka and after 81 minutes of play, she had won the match 7-6 6-2.

MATCH SUMMARY
	Sania Mirza (IND)	Azarenka (BLR)
Percentage 1st Serve in	42 of 72 = 58%	39 of 69 = 57%
Aces	3	1
Double Faults	2	4
Unforced Errors	30	46
Winning % on 1st Serve	29 of 42 = 69 %	18 of 39 = 46 %
Winning % on 2nd Serve	15 of 30 = 50 %	16 of 30 = 53 %
Winners (Including Service)	19	12
Receiving Points Won	35 of 69 = 51 %	28 of 72 = 39 %
Break Point Conversions	4 of 6 = 67 %	2 of 5 = 40 %
Total Points Won	79	62
Fastest Serve	173 km/h	173 km/h
Average 1st Serve Speed	151 km/h	157 km/h
Average 1st Serve Speed	125 km/h	131 km/h

Sania Mirza now faces the No.43 seeded Dutch Michaella Krajicek (17 yrs) in the second round which will be the first match to be played on Show Court 3 on 19 Jan, starting at 11 a.m. (O530 Hrs IST and 0000 Hrs GMT).

Michaella is the younger sister of former Wimbledon Champion Richard Krajicek and in her Australian Open debut last year, she had reached the second round.

Note: Sania Mirza also has her women's doubles first round match on 19 Jan. She is paired with US national Corina Morariu and they play against the No.14 seed pair of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amelie Mauresmo. This match is the fourth match to be played on Court 18. (All the matches start at 11:00 a.m.).

        Corina Morariu with Lindsay Davenport were the 2005 Australian Open women's doubles runner-up.
        They were seeded No.15 and lost to No.6 seed pair of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Alicia Molik.
        Corina Morariu has to date in her career won 12 WTA Tour doubles titles.

Sania Mirza was one of last year's big movers, jumping from 206 rank on the women's tour to the 2005 year end world ranking of 31.

Now ranked 32, she won her debut singles title in her home city of Hyderabad, India.

A wildcard debutant in 2005 Australian Open, she reached the Open's third round, where she lost to No.7 seeded and the eventual champion Serena Williams 6-1 6-4. At the 2005 French Open, she lost in the first round to Argentinian Gisela Dulko. At Wimbledon 2005, she lost to No.5 seed and eventual quarterfinalist Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 6-7(6-4) 6-4 in the second round and made the 2005 US Open's last 16, where she lost to top seed Maria Sharapova; in an amazing rookie year.

"It all started here. It's always going to be very special for me to come back here," Sania Mirza said.