Cleveland (US): Sania Mirza and her American partner Christina McHale cruised to the semifinals of ‘Tennis in the Land’ tournament here Thursday. The Sania Mirza-Christian McHale pair defeated Lucie Hradecka and Shuai Zhang in straight sets. Sania and McHale hardly broke a sweat, beating Czech Republic’s Hradecka and her Chinese partner Zhang 6-3, 6-3 in a match that lasted 61 minutes.
The Indian-American pair impressed on first serves (78.9 per cent) and converted five out of nine breakpoints to claim a comfortable victory. Sania and McHale will take on Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and American Catherine Harrison for a place in the finals.
They are yet to drop a set in the tournament as they had defeated Georgia’s Oksana Kalashnikova and her Romanian partner Andreea Mitu 6-3, 6-2 in the opening round.
The victory is indeed heart-warming for Sania as it comes after her shocking first round defeat in women’s doubles at the Tokyo Olympics. Sania has been working on her game after appearing a bit rusty in Tokyo. It seems that she has managed to fine tune her game once again according to the rigours of the professional circuit.