Sania stunner
Sania Mirza just ejected #1 seed Martina Hingis from the Korea Open and enters round 3 (thanks, brown_fob):
India’s Sania Mirza rallied past top seed Martina Hingis 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 in the second round of the Korea Open on Thursday, gaining quick revenge on the former number one for a defeat in Kolkata last week.
After losing the first set in which both players struggled to hold serve, Mirza raised her level of play and was able to push the Swiss world number eight around the court with her powerful groundstrokes. [Link]
She clearly learned from the match she dropped to Hingis last week:
Sania lost the first set to the Hingis, who is currently ranked 8, but came back strongly taking six games in a row… From then on Sania was unstoppable winning the third set and the match 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 to send the No. 1 seed out of the tournament in Seoul and enter the third round.
This is Sania’s third meeting with Hingis and also her best performance against a top seed this year. She had lost to Hingis on the last two occasions earlier in the year. [Link]
Mirza also won the doubles title at the Calcutta Open with South African Liezel Huber. She seems really streaky, but when she’s on, she’s on. Congrats!
Update: The players were asked for comment.
“We’ve played two other times. Third time lucky,” Mirza said. “This is the fittest I’ve ever been, best I’ve felt…”
“She played very well today, much better than last week. I gave her too many chances,” Hingis said. “Her forehand is really amazing.”
Mirza faces [Spaniard] Virginia Ruano Pascual in the quarterfinals… [Link]
Update 2: The Hindu calls Mirza…
… the first Indian ever to defeat a former World No. 1 player… [Link]
Mirza is currently ranked 59th in the world while Hingis is ranked 8th.
on Thursday, September 28th, 2006, 9:33 pm in Sports › 
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Sania has one of the most powerful forehands in the women’s circuit. Her win/loss hinges (no pun intended) on her forehand.
She’s trying to develop a more ‘all-round’ game..and that’s one reason for a drop in her rankings this year (she was #32 at the start of this season). Another reason is the fact that she played tougher tournaments this year..mostly Tier I and II. She’s no longer a surprise package..who used to catch her opponents on the wrong foot (like she did to Kuznetsova in Dubai last year). Whats creditable about this win (apart from her ‘bageling’ Hingis in the 2nd set) is the fact that she has played (and lost) to Hingis on two previous occasions, learnt her game and accordingly made changes to her own game.
And btw..when I posted the little stub in the news section, it made Ultrabrown the first website to ‘report’ Sania’s win. No sooner had the match got over than I posted it here.
Rock on!
Re: the update,
Actually, Hindu is incorrect coz Leander Paes did defeat Sampras once.