Sania Mirza in second round

Shailesh Soni

Young Indian tennis star Sania Mirza moved into the second round of the girls' singles at Wimbledon, defeating Julia Smith of Great Britain 3-6, 6-1, 6-3.

Mirza, who is the youngest entry in the girls' draw at just 14 years and 7 months, will now face the winner of the match between seventh seed Gisella Dulko of Argentina and Daniela Bercek of Yugoslavia.

Mirza was broken early in the first set and was again in trouble at 2-4, down 0-30. But she won the next four points to hold serve. She then faced double set points at 3-5 and at 15-40 on her serve, but took the game to the deuce. At advantage out, she again saved a set point. However, the Indian fell on the fourth set point and lost the set at 3-6.

In the second set, the Hyderabad girl changed tactics and was more aggressive as she staged what turned out to be a grand comeback. She broke Smith at 0-40 in the first game and held serve in the next to lead 2-0. She maintained the pressure, and broke again in the fifth game to consolidate her lead to 4-1. Another break in the seventh game saw her take the set easily at 6-1.

The third set was a battle royal and saw a quick exchange of breaks. Mirza started erratically and dropped serve in the first game. But she managed to return the break in the next. Not to be outdone, the British girl broke again in the third game. At this point Mirza pulled her game together and went through five break points before converting it to level at 2-2.

The Indian kept the pressure and broke Smith again in the sixth game to go up 4-2. But Smith was not done either, as she broke Mirza again in the seventh game to make it 3-4. Mirza still maintained the pressure and broke back to go up 5-3. She then served off the match at 40-30 to take a well-deserved place in the second round.

In the boys' section, Sunil Kumar will face British wildcard Craig Evans in the first round.

Craig had lost to Indian players in the last three tournaments. He lost to Vinod Sewa 6-3, 3-6, 2-6 and then to Sunil Kumar 4-6, 4-6 in the eastern circuit a couple of months back, and then to Prakash Amritraj 5-7, 3-6 two weeks back at East Mosely.

If Sunil Kumar wins, he will face the seventh seed Florian Meyer in the second round.

Qualifier Prakash Amritraj of the United States will face his countryman and qualifier Brian Baker in the first round. A win will probably pit him against top seed Janko Tipsarayevic of Yugoslavia in the second round.