Sania Mirza  entered the main draw of the US Open, beating Columbia’s Catalina Castano in the final qualifying round on Friday.

Sania, ranked 160th, got the better of the 188th-ranked Columbian 6-1, 1-6, 6-3 after an hour and 48 minutes.

Sania saved four beak-points and broke Castano twice to race to race away with the first set.

However, the Columbian fought her way back, cashing in on both the break chances that came her way to take the second set.

In the decider, Sania saved four break-points and broke Castano twice to seal a berth in the main draw.

This is the first time since 2005 that Sania had to play in the qualifying round to enter a Grand Slam main draw because of dip in the rankings.

Her best performance at the US Open was a fourth round appearance in 2005.

Somdev Devvarman and Sania Mirza posted first-round victories on opening day of the U.S. Open to become the first man and woman from India to reach the second round of the same grand slam event.

Mirza defeated Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-2 3-6 6-3, and qualifier Devvarman beat Portugal’s Frederico Gil 6-3 6-4 6-3.

Sania Mirza has slipped seven places to 70th position in the Women Tennis Association (WTA) singles rankings.

Sania is suffering from chronic wrist injury and has pulled out of the ongoing US Open.
Mirza, who had surgery on her wrist in April, retired from her first-round singles match in Beijing.
“It’s very disappointing for me to miss the U.S. Open, I’ve always done well in this tournament,” said the 21-year-old Mirza, who reached the fourth round in 2005.

The 20-year old and 26 th seed Indian tennis sensation continuing her recent form has moved to the third round of Women’s Singles, US Open in New York. She has to now take on Russian Anna Chakvetadze to reach the fourth round on Saturday.

In a second round match on Thursday Mirza defeated Laura Granville in straight sets 6-3, 7-5. And this is for the first time in two years that Sania has reached the third round of a tournament. Earlier in 2005 she was able to reach the fourth round of United States Open and made it believe to everyone that an Indian can reach that spot and since then her career graph is improving with every match she plays.

However, as far as her second round match is concerned she has to be very consistent with serve and also needs to reduce the number of unforced errors she did in the second set of match. Granville also falls behind Mirza with some powerful forehand stroke and also the pace. As a result Sania was able to finish the second set with a 6-5 lead.

In the third round she needs to be careful while playing against the sixth seed Chakvetadze. Chakvetadze’s last year performance in US Open was impressive as she had reached the 4 th round. But the worrying factor for Sania will be that in the year 2007 both players have met thrice and in all three matches the Russian was able to beat Mirza.

Sania also in the Mixed Doubles with partner Mahesh Bhupathi has advanced to the second round of the US Open defeating the 7 th seeds Canadian-Russian duo Elena Likhovtseva and Daniel Nestor in straight sets 6-0 6-2. Now they have to face a stronger contender, the 5 th seeded Czech pair of Kveta Peshcke and Martin Damm. In another Mixed Doubles match Leander Paes and Meghan Shaughnessy has also entered the second round defeating Janette Husarova and Pavel Vizner.

Meanwhile, in Men’s Doubles Mahesh Bhupati has also reached the second round with partner Nenad Zimonjic by defeating the pair Igor Kunittsyn and Dmitry Tursunov.

Sania Mirza, ranked 27th in the world, is the only indian woman to be seeded at the US Open tennis tournament.

It has been a great year for her and to make it even better she now has to go past world No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze in the third round of the US Open.

It has been a mixed bag for Sania at the Flushing Meadows as after some initial jitters in her first round match against Kaia Kanepi, the 20-year-old played a much better game in the second round beating Laura Granville in straight sets.

Now Sania will meet Anna Chakvetadze for a place in the next round.

“We just met in the corridor and I’m like ‘I’m sick of meeting you!’ And she’s like ‘You’re my opponent.’ We’ve been great friends for a long time. We used to play doubles together in juniors. I mean, I have no pressure to be honest,” A smiling Sania said.

Sania Mirza and Mahesh Bhupathi shocked seventh seeds Elena Likhovtseva and Daniel Nestor in straight sets to advance to the second round of the mixed doubles of the US Open.

The Indian pair beat the Canadian-Russian duo 6-0, 6-2 on Friday.

Bhupathi and Sania will now take on French-American pair of Tatiana Golovin and Bob Bryan in the second round.

Both Sania and Bhupathi are having a good time at the season’s last Grand Slam.

While Bhupathi has also advanced to the men’s doubles second round, Sania has booked a place in the singles third round and women’s doubles second round.