Sify
 
Cincinatti, Jul 20: India's Sania Mirza reached her first quarterfinals of the year at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open, after a second-round match which swung wildly according to how well she and Laine served. 

In the final set, Mirza still landed less than half of her first serves but won most of what she did put in.

Mirza improved her record for the year to 9-13. She was seeded ninth and handed a better draw after third-seeded Daniela Hantuchova withdrew injured.

Fourth-seeded Katarina Srebotnik matched Mirza in achieving her first quarterfinals of 2006, when the Slovenian put away Yuan Meng of China 7-6 (3), 6-1.

Srebotnik fought off three set points with Yuan leading 5-3 in the first set.

''(Yuan) didn't make many unforced errors in the first set,'' Srebotnik said. ''I didn't play my best, and I was lucky to be able to pull it off and get some momentum.''

Defending champion Patty Schnyder overwhelmed American qualifier Abigail Spears 6-1, 6-0 to advance to the quarterfinals.

The top-seeded Schnyder set up a match against ninth-seeded Sania Mirza, a 6-1, 0-6, 6-1 winner over Finland's Emma Laine 6-1, 0-6, 6-1.

''Short matches always help as the tournament goes on,'' said Schnyder, who was pushed to a third-set tiebreaker in her first-round match on Monday. ''It feels great. Today was a whole new match - a whole new feeling. I just felt ready.''

Seventh-seeded Tatiana Golovin of France took only three games from Vera Zvonareva of Russia, and eighth-seeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina won only four from Amy Frazier of the United States.

''I felt like the match was generally close,'' Frazier said. ''I was down a few points in some games. I don't think the score was indicative how close the match was, and I had never played her, but I knew she was playing well, so I anticipated a tough match.''