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Sania in semis of Pattaya Open

February 13, 2009 19:35 IST

Sania Mirza stormed in to the semi-finals of the Pattaya Open, upsetting home favourite and sixth seed Tamarine Tanasugarn 7-5, 6-4 in Pattaya, Thailand, on Friday.

The Indian ace, who recently won the mixed doubles crown at the Australian Open along with Mahesh Bhupathi, will meet eighth seed Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, who shocked second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-4, 6-1.

Israel's Shahar Peer and Russia's Vera Zvonareva will contest the other semi-final.

The seventh seeded Peer won a hard-fought quarter-final, beating Russia's Vera Dushevina 6-4, 4-6, 6-2, while Zvonareva had little difficulty in accounting for firfh seed Peng Shuai of China 6-2, 6-3 in another quarter-final.

On Thursday, Sania thrashed Russian qualifier Vitalia Diatchenko 6-4, 6-0 to reach the quarter-finals of the US $220,000 tournament.