Sania enters quarterfinals

Sania Mirza and her partner Anastasia Rodionova overcame a late resistance from Eleni Daniiliidou and Andreja Klepac to progress to the quarterfinals of the Estoril Open here on Monday.

The second-seeded Indo-Australia pair got the better of their unseeded rivals 6-2, 6-7 (5-7), 10-5 in the opening round.

It took Sania and Rodionova one hour and 27 minutes to down the Greek-Slovakian combination.

After dropping serve in the 11th game of the second set, Sania and Rodionova broke back immediately to push the issue to a tie-breaker but could not stop their rivals from drawing parity in the match.

However, they did better in the match tie-breaker to seal the match. Sania and Rodionova will now take on the winner of the other first round match between Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino/Anabel Medina and Lindsay Lee-Waters/Megan Moulton-Levy.