Friday, September 23 2005 11:59 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Kolkata: Leaving behind her disappointing early exit in the singles, Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza and her top ranked partner Virgina Ruano Pascaul of Spain stormed into the semi final of the US$ 170,000 WTA Sunfeast Open tennis tournament in Kolkata yesterday (Sept 22, 2005).

The fourth seeded Indo-Spanish duo made short work of un seeded pair of Sunitha Rao (USA) and Villmarie Castellvi (Puerto Rico) 6-1, 6-3 before a handful of spectators at the Netaji Indoor stadium.

Sania and Pascaul combined well on the court to take control of the match from the very start and hardly faced any trouble on their way to the last four stages.

Even though the rivals broke their serve on the opening game, Sania and Pascaul, ranked 149, kept their cool and broke them back in the next game and again in the fourth and sixth game to bag the set 6-1.

While Sania looked determined to compensate for her loss in the singles, Sunitha, the Indian-born USA player, seemed low on morale after her loss against Elena Likhovtseva in the singles early yesterday.

Sania mostly held on to the base line while Pascaul intercepted well at the net to baffle the rivals, who were at loss particularly in the opening set.

In the second set, Sania and her partner broke the opponent's serve in the first game and held their own in the next game to take a 2-0 lead.

While Sunitha-Castellvi held their serve in the third game, there was no stopping the winners, who surged ahead to 4-1 in no time.

However, in the sixth game, Sania lost her serve but broke the rivals back in the seventh before Pascaul finished off the set and the match.

Sania and Pascaul, who were likely to face the top seeded Russian pair Anastasia Myskina and Elena Likhovtseva in the semi final, admitted that the next round would be a tough call.

But "We are combining well and lets see how it works," Sania said.

Commenting on his partner, the teenager said "She is a very effective player and its a learning process for me".

Asked if she planned to pair up with the Italian on a regular basis, Sania said "We cannot make any commitment. She has a long way to go and I have a long way to go. Lets see (what happens)".

The Hyderabadi, who watched top seeded Myskina playing her singles match before her own game started, felt that India's Sikha Uberoi was going to have a tough match against the Russian in the quarterfinal of the singles event.