Sania in Vancouver Open semi-finals

New Delhi, Aug 8

Sania Mirza overcame local teenager Rebecca Marino 7-6(2), 6-7 (3), 6-4 to enter the semi-finals of the Vancouver Open tennis tournament.

It was 22-year-old Hyderabadi's second consecutive International Tennis Federation (ITF) challenger semi-final, which meanst withdrawing from the Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open qualifiers at Cincinnati.

Next up for Sania is another Canadian Sharon Fichman who defeated her compatriot and doubles partner Marie-Eve Pelletier 6-2, 6-1.

The other semi-final is between Canadian Stephanie Dubois and American Mashona Washington. Second-seed Dubois had no trouble beating world's top-ranked junior Noppawan Lertcheewakarn of Thailand 6-1, 6-0, while Washington defeated US-based Canadian Heidi El Tabakh 6-4, 6-3.

Sania, who had to wait for a long time to get onto the court, broke 18-year-old Marino early in the opening set for a 3-1 lead. But Marino, who has steadily climbed the rankings from 954 a year and half ago to 207th last week, broke back in the eighth game.

The set went into a tie-break where Sania sprinted to a 5-0 lead before closing it out 7-2.

The top seeded Indian found herself at the receiving end in second set when Marino broke her service early to go 3-1 up. The local girl was serving for the set at 5-4 but Sania broke back to force another tie-break.

Unlike in the first set, this time Marino turned the tables on Sania to make it a set-all.

The Canadian carried the momentum into the decider, racing to a 3-0 lead, before Sani boke back in the fifth game. The two traded another couple of breaks before Sania finally held to level 4-4.

The Indian managed to pull off a close ninth game for a decisive 5-4 lead, before serving out the set and the match in style.