Football
Associated Press 17y

Williams advances in Acura

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Sania Mirza used pressure at the net in
the third set to pull off a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 upset of No. 12 seed
Shahar Peer Tuesday in the Acura Classic.

Mirza, a finalist at Stanford on Sunday, beat her doubles
partner by going to the net more often than usual in the final set,
trying to shorten rallies. The strategy paid off for Mirza, who
said she was tired from playing all week at the Bank of the West
Classic.

"I really didn't want to spend so much time on the court,"
said Mirza, who lost in straights sets at Stanford to Anna
Chakvetadze. "We all know that (Peer) is one of the best on the
Tour at running down shots. If I keep hitting and ripping from
behind the baseline, she's going to keep tracking down balls."

Mirza instead decided uncharacteristically to come to the net in
the third set against her Israeli opponent. It worked as Mirza
jumped out to a 4-1 lead.

Fourth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia advanced with a 6-3, 7-5
second-round victory over countrywoman Elena Bovina.

"She is not an easy player to play in the first round,"
Petrova said. "But overall, I'm happy on what I did on the court
today."

No. 5 Marion Bartoli of France struggled in her second-round
match before defeating Japan's Aiko Nakamura, 7-6 (4), 6-1. Bartoli
was the runner-up to Venus Williams at Wimbledon.

In other first-round matches involving ranked players, No. 15
seed Sybille Bammer of Austria was a 6-4, 7-6 (5) winner over
Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine, and 16th-seeded Lucie Safarova
of the Czech Republic defeated Meilen Tu of the United States, 6-4,
6-3.

Mirza, who equaled her career high ranking of No. 31 this week
after her runner-up finish at Stanford, broke Peer's serve nine
times.

"I'm happy because it was a very tough first-round match,"
Mirza said. "But we both are not happy because we are friends, and
it's hard to play a friend."

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