Guangzhou: India's Sania Mirza put herself into medal contention as she came up with yet another sensational performance, knocking out second-seeded Tamrine Tanasugarn of Thailand 6-2, 6-3 in the women's tennis singles at the 16th Asian Games at the Aoti Tennis Centre here yesterday.
In her second round match on Friday, Mirza had been emphatic in her victory against sixth seed Zhang Shuai of China.
Mirza will now take on third seed Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan, who secured a tough 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 win against fifth seeded Ayumi Morita of Japan in another quarter-final.
Mirza later teamed up with Vishnu Vardhan to claim an exciting 2-6, 6-4, 1-0 (super tie-break) win against the fourth-seeded pair of Chuang Chia Jung and Yi Chi Huan of Chinese Taipei to book a semi-final meeting against the top pair of Tamarine Tanasugarn and Sanchai Ratiwatana of Thailand.
Men's contest
In the upper half of the draw, top seed Kimiko Date-Krumm of Japan advanced to the semi-finals with a 7-6 (2), 7-5 win over Lee Jin of South Korea, where she will take on fourth-seeded Peng Shuai of China, a 6-2, 7-6 (1) winner against Chang Kai Chen of Chinese Taipei.
In the men's singles, two Indians made it to the quarter-final stages with second seeded Somdev Devvarman leading the way, and seventh seeded Karan Rastogi following suit later during the day.
Devvarman secured a crushing 6-1, 6-1 victory over Uzbekistan's Vaja Uzakov and Rastogi made short work of Chinese Taipei's Chen Ti to set up a mouth-watering clash against top-seeded Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
In the lower half, Devvarman will vie against the sixth-seeded Chinese Zhang Ze to book a spot in the semi-finals today.
Later in the evening, Devvarman teamed up with Sanam Krishnan Singh to become the first pair to enter the men's doubles semi-finals following their 6-2, 6-4 result against the Chinese duo of Bai Yan and Zhang Ze.
The Indian duo will now meet Cho Soong Jae and Kim Hyun Joon of South Korea in today's semi-finals.
