Sania shocks top seed to enter semis

Indian teen sensation Sania Mirza stormed into the women"s singles semi-finals in the Asian Tennis Championships, beating top seed Mia-Ra Jeon of Korea at the Tashkent Tennis Centre on Friday.

The 17-year-old seventh seed, who had routed Kamila Mirzaalimova of Uzbekistan without dropping a game in the pre-quarter-finals, won 7-6(2), 6-0.

In a delectable display of attacking tennis, Sania, watched by her mother and team coach Chandrashekhar, blazed to a 5-3 lead in the first set before wasting a bunch of set points to allow the patient and composed Korean to crawl back and level the score at 5-5.

But thereafter it became a match of sheer physical domination and Jeon was no match for the much stronger and younger Indian.

The victory over the higher-ranked Jeon (WTA 168) is one of Sania's best wins this season and enabled her avenge her defeat in the Fed Cup earlier this year.

Sania, who has been training under Boris Becker's former coach, Bob Brett, in Italy, says she now feels in great physical form.

"I'm serving really well after I began training with Brett. And, he trains so hard that I don't ever feel tired during a match," she said.

"This girl is gifted. She has it in her to crack the top 100 in a year. She hits much harder than the boys," team coach Chandrashekhar said after the match.

Sania runs into eighth seed Napaporn Tongsalee of Thailand, who got the better of third seed Chia Jung Chuang of Taipei 3-6, 6-1, 6-3 in another quarter-final.

Sania had beaten Tongsalee two weeks ago in a $ 25,000 Challenger in New Delhi.

Sania's hopes of a double were dashed when she crashed out of the doubles after she and partner Rushmi Chakravarti, the second seeds, conceded a walk-over to third seeds Chin Wei Chan and Ryoko Fuda.

The Indian pair had to pull out as Chakravarti was suffering from a sore shoulder.

In the bottom half, second seeded Na Li of China plays fourth seeded Ryoko Fuda of Japan for a place in the final.

Na Li rallied to get the better of sixth seed Chin Wei Chan of Taipei 5-7, 7-6 (3), 6-1 while Fuda beat fifth seed Jin Hee Kim of Korea 7-5, 6-2.

In the men's singles, Mohammed Al -Ghareeb of Kuwait stormed into the semi-finals, whipping China's Shao Xuan Zeng 6-2, 6-4.

The 24-year-old giant-killer plays Yeu-Tzuoo Wang of Taipei in the semis. Wang shocked sixth seed Young Jun Kim of Korea 6-4, 7-6(0).

In the other semi-final, Pakistan's second seed Aisam Ul Haq Qureshi plays seventh seed Peng Sun of China.

In the quarter-finals, Qureshi beat Alexey Kedriouk (Kaz) 6-4, 7-6(9) while Sun accounted for Dmitry Mazur of Uzbekistan, winning 6-4, 6-0.

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