Paris: Desperate to improve her Grand Slam record, Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza began her French Open campaign with an impressive 6-3 6-3 win over Kristina Barrois in the women's singles on Monday.
World number 72 Sania, who has never moved beyond the second round here, put up a clinical performance against the German, who enjoyed a career-best ranking of 57, a couple of weeks back but has now slumped to 73.
Sania, whose left leg was strapped just below the knee, completed the win with a backhand winner after an hour and 15 minutes on court number six. Sania has not been able to cross the second round hurdle in the Grand Slams since 2009 and the fourth round appearance in the US Open in 2005 remains her best performance.
She will next face either 12th seed Polish Agnieszka Radwanska or Austria's Patricia Mayr-Achleitner. The clay court surface is not of the liking of Sania but the Indian looked quite comfortable against her opponent and played with a lot of confidence.
Sania played aggressively and thus committed a lot of unforced errors and also struggled with first serve but the overall game was so dominating that Kristina had no clue how to stop the Indian. In all, Sania hit 28 winners to 10 of Kristina but seven doubles faults compared to three of the German blemished her scorecard.
A break of serve in the fourth game put Sania ahead 3-1 and after saving two breakpoints in the next game, the Indian had no difficulty in pocketing the first set. Sania went for her shots and some of the forehand winners were outstanding. She hit 13 winners to three of Kristina in the 34-minute opening-set.
After both the players saved a breakpoint each at the start of the second set, again it was Sania, who grabbed the lead by breaking her rival in the third game. They traded breaks in the sixth and seventh games. After saving two breakpoints in the eighth game, Sania broke
Kristina for the final time in the next game to seal a place in the second round.
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