Mirza Bruises Fellow Indian at Kolkata

World No.70 Mirza enlightened Indian tennis fans last year when she won India's first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title in her home town, Hyderabad. She posted her 100th career match victory en route to the final and made her Top 100 debut. The teenager also played here last year but lost in the second round.

Mirza caught a slow start this year but just reached her first singles quarterfinal of the year this summer at Cincinnati. She also had impressive performances in doubles, including a run to the semifinals at Stanford with Bethanie Mattek.

Three other seeds were less fortunate, as first round action continued. No.2 Karolina Sprem, No.3 Yuliana Fedak and No.8 Anastassia Rodionova exited the Tier III event on Tuesday. Sprem was eliminated by Casey Dellacqua, 26 76(2) 62, Fedak lost to Alberta Brianti, 64 62, while Rodionova fell victim to Alla Kudryavtseva, 16 63 63.

World No.127 Brianti defeated Mirza earlier this year in Montreal but is still trying to reach her first Tour quarterfinal. Dellacqua and Kudryavtseva are also fighting for their first Tour quarterfinal appearances. Brianti will play Angelique Widjaja, Kudryavtseva faces Hana Sromova and Dellacqua is up against Iroda Tulyaganova.

Top seed Martina Hingis will next play Tzipora Obziler and No.4 Aravane Rezai is up against Tatiana Poutchek.
-- WTA