
Sania Mirza continued with her dream form to sweep past eighth seed Russian Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-2 to set up an exciting quarter final clash with world number two and defending champion Maria Sharapova at the 1.3 million Acura Classic Women8217;s tennis tournament here.
The Indian, who has won 10 of her last 12 matches, would take on top seed Sharapova after the Russian outplayed French Tatiana Golovin 6-0, 6-3 in her third-round match at the WTA Tier I hard court event yesterday.
Sania and Sharapova have clashed only once earlier when the Russian demolished the Indian 6-2, 6-1 in the pre-quarter finals of the 2005 US Open Grand Slam.
However, it turned out be a disappointing day for Sania in doubles as the Indian and her Israeli partner Shahar Peer crashed out 6-3, 3-6, 10-12 to Su-Wei Hseih Taipei and Alla Kudryavtseva Russia in the second round.
Paes-Damm duo enters semi-final: In Washington, second seeds Leander Paes and Martin Damm beat South African Chris Haggard and Croat Ivo Karlovic 6-7, 6-3, 10-8 to advance to the semi-finals of the 600,000 Legg Mason Classic yesterday.