Friday, February 11 2005 23:19 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Hyderabad: Sania Mirza overcame a spell of erratic display and a stubborn opponent to storm into her maiden WTA final at the $ 140,000 Hyderabad Open today (Feb 11, 2005).

The 18-year-old, who became the first Indian to reach the third round of a Grand Slam event at the Australian Open last month, got the better of eighth seed Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-4 7-6 (7/4) in the semi-finals at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh stadium in Hyderabad.

Egged on by a vociferous crowd, Sania looked like running away with the match as she opened up a 3-0 lead in the second set. But in a bid to finish off the match as early as possible she committed far too many unforced errors to her own liking and allowed her opponent to come back into the match.

Sania, infact, made two successive double faults in the ninth game while serving for the match, thereby losing her serve.

And when the Hyderabadi lass failed to hold her serve in the 11th game, it looked like the Indian was beginning to lose the plot.

However, Sania had a different plan as she came up with a couple of big winners in a long-drawn 12th game and save a set point to force a tie-breaker.

In the ensuing tiebreaker, the Russian took a 4-2 lead before Sania won the next five points to wind-up the match.

Sania, who has been a revelation this year, was on her job from the very beginning as she broke her opponent's serve in the fourth game of the first set.

The Indian, who played with a strapped left-thigh in the earlier part of the set, however lost her serve in the very next game.

But, undeterred by her Kirilenko's charge, Sania kept going for her shots and even came up with a couple of big serves on her second serves to take the set.

With the form she was in, it appeared that the local girl would wrap up the issue in no time and the hopes of the large crowd almost fulfilled before the Russian, ranked 94, came back to push Sania to the hilt.