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Sania storms into Hyderabad Open final

Sify.com reports: Sania storms into Hyderabad Open final

Sania Mirza overcame a spell of erraticity and a stubborn opponent to storm into her maiden WTA final at the USD 140,000 Hyderabad Open here on Friday.

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 semifinals at the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh stadium here.

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, in fact, 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.