Wednesday 7th February

by Barry Wood

Third seed Mara Santangelo won comfortably enough, but fifth seed Sania Mirza was stretched by Tamarine Tanasugarn, and fourth seed Shuai Peng also dropped the first set set before overwhelming Romina Oprandi 6-7(5) 6-1 6-3.

Santangelo beat Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2 6-4, with the Italian taking early advantage of her opponent's weak serve to break for 2-0. Kudryavtseva also had to hold off another break point at 0-3, but then had the opportunity to gain a foothold on the match when Santangelo double-faulted at 4-2 to give her break point. But the Italian saved that with a volley, held for 5-2, and broke again for the set.

Kudryavtseva had another chance early in the second set when she held two break points to lead 2-1, but she then dropped her own serve in the next game to fall behind 3-1. And although Santangelo dropped her serve as she served for the match at 5-3, the Italian broke once more for victory.

Mirza took control after a difficult first two sets to beat Tanasugarn 6-4 2-6 6-1. Despite her defeat there was a lot of positives in Tammy's game. She hit some fine groundstrokes and moved the ball around well. The only thing missing was consistency, and that was something Mirza admitted was also absent from her game.

"I obviously didn't play close to my best, but under the conditions and circumstances it was a good match to win," said Mirza. "It was a bit windy today and that was one of the reasons for the inconsistency, but I'm happy to get through to the quarters.

"Obviously when you're playing her in her home country she's more dangerous, so I knew it was going to be a tough match. She's been top 20 in the world. "I think it's a great confidence-booster that you can still beat someone who was ranked as high as the top 20 and beat them 6-1 in the third when you're not playing your best tennis."

In the remaining match played on Wednesday, Austrian left-hander Sybille Bammer defeated Russia's Anastassia Rodionova 6-2 7-5. On Thursday, the remaining four second round matches will be played, with top seed Marion Bartoli taking on Martina Sucha.