Sania reaches third round in Aus Open

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Sania Mirza survived a scare to beat Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland and advance to the third round of the women's singles event in the Australian Open in Melbourne on Thursday.

In a battle lasting for one hour and 44 minutes, Sania got the better of Timea 6-1 4-6 7-5.

In the next round, Sania has the uphill task of taking on eighth-seeded Venus Williams of the USA. The American defeated Camille Pin of France 7-5 6-4 to book a berth in the third round.

Sania banked on the unforced errors of her opponent to wrap up the first set in style.

But Timea fought back strongly in the second set. Both the players committed an identical 17 unforced errors. However, Sania's three double faults pumped up the Swiss girl who unleashed 10 winners to draw parity.

In the keenly contested decider, Sania approached the net more often and reduced her unforced errors to emerge victorious.

The 31-seeded Indian said she was delighted to make it to the third round after the off the-court controversies that chased her before the tournament.

"She was in the match till the end, and I think I was just stronger a bit mentally. I hung in there very well," Sania said.

About her upcoming clash with Venus, Sania said she would give it her best as she had nothing to lose.

"I'm just going to go for it. I have nothing to lose. I'm very excited, actually, to play Venus. "I think the last time I played her was in Stanford a couple years ago, and I haven't played her since. And obviously I feel like I'm playing well, and I'm playing better tennis than I was a couple of years ago. And so is she."

Sania was again at the centre of a controversy after a photograph showing her bare feet resting near the national flag was published in papers recently. The Hyderabadi said her strong mental approach helped her concentrate on the game despite the distractions.

"I think at the end of the day, when you go out on the court, it's you, the ball and the opponent," she said. "I'm very pleased by winning like this today because a lot has been happening in the last couple of weeks off the court.

"I was down 3-1, 30-all (in third). I could have just said, 'I'm just mentally not there'. It would have been a good excuse even for myself.