Sania packs off Peer early

Somdev advances in Tashkent Challenger; Bopanna ousted

With two players fully aware of each other’s game, it was an intense one-hour, 52-minute tug-of-war, at the end of which Sania finished on the right side with a hard-earned 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 win.

The Indian will now face Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine, who had won the first set 6-2 before her opponent Maria Kirilenko of Russia retired.
Sania broke her opponent’s serve twice but was broken herself thrice as the Indian lost the first set.

In the second set, however, Sania saved all three break points to draw parity and maintained her superiority in the decider to emerge winner.

Gonzalez through

Tenth seed Fernando Gonzalez reached the second round of the inaugural Shanghai Masters on Monday when German Mischa Zverev retired injured in the third set of a tight match.

The match was all square at 7-5, 6-7, 2-2 when the world number 67 called an end to the contest because of what appeared to be a right wrist injury.  Gonzalez, the world number 12, secured the first set with a superb backhand but mixed sublime shots with a string of feckless errors as the German's aggressive tactics paid off.

The 22-year-old Zverev first got treatment on his hand at 40-40 in the opening game of the third set and decided he could not continue three games later.  Chilean Gonzalez, one of a handful of players competing for the last three spots at the season-ending World Tour Finals, will play Brazilian qualifier Thomaz Bellucci in the second round.

American James Blake earlier set up a second meeting in a week with top seed Rafa Nadal by standing his ground against an onslaught of 27 aces from Croatian Ivo Karlovic to win their first-round match 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.

Blake lost an entertaining match against the world number two in Beijing last week and was under no misapprehensions about what he faces in the second round in China's financial capital.

Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka came from behind to beat Poland’s Lukasz Kubot 2-6, 7-6, 7-6 in a three-hour match and will play the American Andy Roddick in the second round.

Bopanna out

Seventh-seeded Indian Somdev Devvarman beat Spanish player Gillermo Olaso 6-3, 6-2 while compatriot Rohan Bopanna went down to Chinese Taipei’s Lu Yen-Hsun 6-4, 6-2 in the $125,000 Tashkent Challenger opening round.

It turned out to be a one-sided affair for Somdev. He broke Olaso in the sixth game of the match in the first set and in the third and the seventh games of the second set. The Indian next plays the winner of the match between Latvian Deniss Pavlovs and Russian Alexandre Kudryavtsev.

In the other match on Sunday, Indian wildcard Bopanna was broken by Lu in the seventh game of the first set and then twice in the second set.  Lu and Bopanna will now pair up for the doubles event.