Tashkent Open: Sania cruises to second round

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October 04, 2006 14:19 IST

Third seed Sania Mirza needed just 48 minutes to win her first-round match at the Tashkent Open on Wednesday.

Mirza, the 19-year-old Indian ranked 55 in the world, defeated France's Pauline Parmentier 6-3, 6-1 on a bright day, in contrast to the cloudy conditions on Tuesday. Parmentier, 20, is ranked 206.

Mirza got to a quick start, breaking Parmentier twice in the first set and going 3-0 up. There was a brief stutter then as she dropped her serve. Parmentier, however, couldn't do much as Mirza broke her again in the ninth game to take the set.

In the second set, Mirza again broke Parmentier early to go 2-0 up. The French girl had another chance to come back into the match when she had Mirza 0-40 in the next game but she couldn't force the break.

Mirza then cantered to her win, winning 16 of the last 18 points of the match, 10 of them in a row.

Mirza next plays Hana Sromova of the Czech Republic. It will be their first meeting on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

"It's good to have an easy first-round," Mirza said later.

 "I don't have it too often. I still have to get used to these courts, they are very different from Seoul." Mirza reached the quarter-finals at Seoul last week.

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