Rediff

Netherlands, Jun 16: Sania Mirza shocked fifth seed Flavia Pennetta in straight sets to advance to the second round of the Ordina Open in s'Hertogenbosh, Netherlands on Monday.

Sania shrugged off her disappointing first match loss at the DFS Classic last week and went all out against her Italian opponent to register a convincing 6-4, 6-3 win in one hour and 12 minutes in the first round.

Both the players offered chances to each other as the match witnessed lot of breaks.

Sania broke Pennetta, who is world number 23, four times in the first set and dropped her serve thrice.

In the second set, the Indian raced to a 5-1 lead after breaking Pennetta in the second, fourth and sixth games. Pennetta tried to stage a comeback by breaking Sania in the seventh and holding her own in the eighth but the Indian quickly served out the match in the next to move to the next stage.

Sania next plays the winner of the match between local favourite Michaella Krajicek and Japanese Ai Sugiyama.