The only other time Bethanie Mattek and Sania Mirza teamed together for doubles, they made the semifinals of the Tier II Stanford event last year.

But even before the two combined to beat Alina Jidkova and Tatiana Poutchek, 7-6 (4), 7-5, in the Western & Southern Women’s Open doubles final Sunday, they decided they enjoyed their partnership enough to continue it at the U.S. Open.

A championship in one tournament and a semifinals appearance in another aren’t terrible results.

“That’s not bad,” Mirza said.

Not bad at all. Their semifinal opponents, Liga Dekmeijere and Ipek Senoglu, pushed the top-seeded Mirza and Mattek to a third-set tiebreak – Mirza still had to recover mentally from losing her W&S semifinals singles match earlier Saturday – but the two were good enough to get by them and then past Jidkova and Poutchek.

They just hope they can produce the same chemistry during the U.S. Open.

“The more we play together, the more comfortable we’re going to get with each other,” said Mirza, who lost in the W&S doubles finals last year with Marta Domachowska but is now a five-time doubles champion. “Today was not one of our best matches. We played better matches during the week. We helped each other, we played solid and if we keep doing that, we can definitely have a chance.”

Mattek agrees. She just thinks the two make a good team.

“It’s a good mixture,” said Mattek, who won the second doubles title of her career. “We’re both pretty solid from the baseline. Sania offers a lot of power, and it gives me the ability to poach and move and get to the net. On the serves, we open each other up and play it real aggressive. I think people get scared of our shots. It’s pretty intimidating to have that coming at you.”

AMANMURADOVA MAKES FANS – Akgul Amanmuradova made quite an impression on the Cincinnati fans last week.

Slogging her way through three qualifying matches to make the W&S main singles draw, the Uzbekistan native easily knocked off wild card Connie Hsu in the first round before beating Mattek in a third-set tiebreak (Amanmuradova was behind 4-0 in the third set).

She didn’t have many problems with Lilia Osterloh to reach the semifinals, where she gave Akiko Morigami a tough match before falling 6-7 (8), 6-4, 6-3 Saturday.

But she won herself some new fans, who loudly cheered for her as she left Center Court for the final time.

“That’s what makes me happy,” Amanmuradova said after the loss. “That’s why I’m telling you mentally I’m fine. Tennis is not only money, points and place in the rankings. When you have a match like that and the people are just clapping, it’s amazing. I’ve never had that before.”

Amanmuradova, ranked No. 141 in the world last week, was especially moved because she entered the W&S as an unknown to the American audience.

“When I play at home, it’s home,” she said. “People who know me are going to support me. But here, I’m not from the U.S. People cheer you up when I was down in the third set. I never felt this atmosphere. … Points, you can lose. Money, you have. Tomorrow, you may not have it. But you never forget this thing.”

ATTENDANCE DOWN – Not surprisingly, the W&S announced its lowest attendance figures since the tournament returned in 2004.

For Sunday’s finals matches, 3,029 attended the Lindner Family Tennis Center, and for the tournament overall, which was hurt by Serena Williams and other top-seeded players withdrawing, 37,196 made their way to the event.

Compared to 2005, also a tournament that didn’t feature one of tennis’ biggest names, 38,927 fans attended.

The biggest crowds came in 2004 when a total of 50,080 fans watched Lindsay Davenport make her run to the title and last year when 44,026 saw Serena Williams advance to the semifinals.

Sania Mirza went down fighting against world number eight and top seed Anna Chakvetadze in the singles semifinal of the USD 175,000 Cincinnati Open tennis tournament here.
The Indian star, seeded third, pushed her more fancied Russian opponent to the limit but lost the three setter 2-6 7-5 3-6 in …. Minutes in the WTA Tier III event yesterday.

Sania, who played her fourth three-setter in as many matches, tried hard to keep herself in contention by pulling off the second set but Chakvetadze came back stronger to race out to a 4-0 lead in the decider and eventually sealing the matter.

Making her first semi-final appearance here after quarter-final exits at each of the last two editions of the tournament, Sania confessed that she ran out of steam towards the end.

“She played a great match; she’s a tricky player to play. After the second set, I was mentally drained after playing so many close points. I think my level dropped a bit and hers raised and when you are playing the Top 10 you can’t afford to do that,” she said.

Chakvetadze, who fought back from 4-1 down in the second set only to get pushed to a third, said Sania did not play well.

“It was really up and down on both sides. In the first set she didn’t play very well, making a lot of mistakes. In the third, she was more relaxed because she was down 5-0. But overall it was a good match.”

Top seeds Sania Mirza and American Bethanie Mattek hardly broke a sweat as they trounced Lilia Osterloh and Anastasia Rodionova in straight sets to breeze into the doubles semi-finals of the $175,000 Cincinnati Open.

Sania and Bethanie took little over an hour to quell the US-Russian pair 6-2, 6-3 in the quarter-final match.

The Indo-American pair will next face the winner of the match between Liga Dekmeijere-Ipek Senoglu and Akgul Amanmuradova-Varvara Lepchenko pairs.

Sania and Bethanie were in control right from the beginning as they held their serve, besides breaking the US-Russian pair twice, to clinch the opening set.

The second set followed a similar script as Sania and Bethanie continued their dominance, breaking Lilia and Anastasia thrice to seal matter in their favour.

Meanwhile, the Indian tennis sensation continued her winning streak in the singles quarter-final match too. Sania beat Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-1, 6-1 in straight sets to book her first-ever singles semi-final berth at Cincinnati Open on Friday.

Third-seeded Mirza needed just 51 minutes to eliminate Govortsova. The Hyderabad girl will next face world number eight and top-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia in the semis. Sania said the win had given her much-needed confidence ahead of the challenging semi-final.

“You want to win at any stage of the tournament, but it (the score 6-1, 6-1) does give you extra confidence. You’re in the quarterfinals, so you’re playing the best eight, and you get an easy win,” the 20-year-old said.

Chavetadze advanced to the semi-finals after her opponent compatriot Elena Vesnina, seeded sixth, retired with a right shoulder strain. Vesnina was trailing 6-7 (3/7), 6-0, 4-1 when she conceded the match.

Chakvetadze had defeated Mirza 6-4, 6-1 in Hobart, Australia in their only career meeting earlier this year.

Third-seed Sania Mirza of India led the way into the quarter-finals of the $175,000 WTA hardcourt tournament here with a straight set win over Varvara Lepchenko.

Mirza downed her opponent on Wednesday from Uzbekistan 6-2, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals here for the third straight year.

Mirza has been working her way back into shape after missing two and a half months earlier this season due to knee surgery.

Wednesday’s victory marked the first time she has put together back-to-back victories since February.

Mirza now awaits the winner of the second-round match between ninth-seeded Jill Craybas of the United States and Olga Govortsova of Belarus.

Top-seeded Russian Anna Chakvetadze also reached the quarter-finals, defeating Romanian qualifier Anda Perianu 6-4, 6-3.

Perianu had recorded her first WTA Tour match win on Tuesday when she beat Melinda Czink in the first round.

The only other seeded player in action, No 7 Akiko Morigami of Japan also had an easy second-round match.

A finalist here in 2005, Morigami dispatched German teenager Angelique Kerber 6-2, 6-2.

Kerber has been rising steadily up the WTA Tour ranks this year, cracking the world Top 100 in May. But the 27-year-old Morigami has shown a lot of poise over the last few months as well, capturing her maiden singles title at Prague in May and pushing eventual champion Venus Williams to three sets in the early rounds of Wimbledon.

In other second-round action, American Lilia Osterloh topped Georgian qualifier Anna Tatishvili 7-5, 6-1 while in the first round China’s Yuan Meng defeated Australian Casey Dellacqua 6-4, 4-6, 6-2.