Sania is lone Indian to survive in Australian ITF event

Indian junior Sania Mirza moved into the second round of the Grade-1 Australian Hardcourts ITF Juniors Championships at Glen Waverly, Melbourne, Australia on Monday.

Mirza, seeded eighth, defeated Daniella Dominikovic of Australia 6-1, 6-0 in her first round match.

She will now face her doubles partner, Linda Smolenakova of Slovakia, in the second round. Smolenakova defeated Carly Gullickson of the United States 6-2; 4-6; 6-2 in the first round.

All the other Indians in the fray crashed out in the first round itself.

In the girls' singles, unseeded Megha Vakharia lost to Olga Puchkov of Bulgaria 1-6, 0-6, while in the boys', Amanjot Singh went down to qualifier Gunter Austerhuber of Austria 1-6, 4-6, and Rohan Gajjar lost to Daniel Sebescen of Yugoslavia 2-6, 3-6.

Gajjar made it to the main draw as the first lucky loser and ended up facing Sebescen, to who he had lost in the final of the qualifiers.

In the boys' doubles, Amanjot Singh and Rohan Gajjar moved into the second round, defeating the Australian pair of Christopher Letcher and Christopher Roman 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round.

Rishi Behl, partnering Yu-Da Shieh of Taiwan, lost to top seeds Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic and Brendan Evans of the United States 2-6, 3-6.

In the girls' doubles, Sania Mirza and Linda Smolenakov of Slovakia are seeded sixth. The duo play Darya Ivanov and Tiffany Welford of Australia in the first round.

Last week, Sania and Smolenakov had won the doubles title at the Victorian Grade II championship at Traralgon, Australia.

Sasha Abraham is partnering Amani Khalifa of Egypt. They face the American pair of Nicole Pitts and Sunitha Rao in the first round.

This tournament is the big preparation event before the Australian Open juniors next week.

Earlier report:
Gajjar, Bhel lose in Australian Hardcourt event