SEOUL: India's Sania Mirza scripted an upset victory as she recovered from a one-set deficit to knock off world number eight Martina Hingis to storm into the quarterfinals of the Hansol Korea Open here on Thursday.
Sania, ranked 59 in world, upstaged the top seed 4-6 6-0 6-4 in the second round of the $145,000 hardcourt tournament and avenged her last week's Sunfeast open semifinal loss at the hands of the comeback Swiss miss.
This was Sania's third encounter against the former world No one, who had got the better of the Indian in the Dubai Open and then in the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata recently.
Having lost the first set, Sania raised her game to several notches and swept the second set. Sania was in a mood to relent this time and clinched the decider to cap the first big win of this season.
The Hyderabad girl will play against the winner of the wild card Angelique Widaja of Indonesia and Ruan Pascual Virgina of Spain for a berth in the semifinal.
In her first round match on Wednesday, Sania was caught off-guard by Korean wild card Ya Ra Lee who pocketed the first set 6-3 before she took control of things and packed her off 6-0 6-0.
The victory would come as a big boost to Sania, who has found her going tough this year in the WTA circuit after having caught the attention of the tennis world with her rise last year that saw her reach the rankings of world No 30.
But since then she slipped to 70, before gaining 11 places after the Sunfeast Open, and critics said that she had reached her pinnacle but she proved them wrong on Thursday showing she has enough fire in her belly to achieve more laurels.
Hingis, might not have taken her opponent lightly after the Kolkata match, the scoreline of which suggested a one sided affair, as she admitted that Sania has improved her game and the win was not that easy.
