Sania Mirza enters
Giza tennis final

Shailesh Soni

India's Sania Mirza entered the final of the Movenpick grade-3 international junior tennis tournament being played in Giza, Egypt, defeating Wana Mrazovic of Yugoslavia 6-2, 6-2 on Friday.

The Hyderabad-based lass will meet the tall 18-year-old Helena Norfeldt of Sweden in the title clash on Saturday.

This will be Sania's second ITF grade-3 final, having earlier won the Bangladesh international junior championship at Dhaka in February this year.

On a day when Sania's first serve was on song, the Yugoslav never came close to breaking her. From 1-2 in the first set, Sania repeatedly beat her opponent with some delectable passing shots and won five games in a row to clinch the first set with ease.

The second set, however, saw the European girl raise the level of her game and the first seven games went with serve. But Sania made the crucial breakthrough in the eighth game with a couple of deeply angled returns and served out for the match.

Mrazovic partnering Nadja Kosterer of Germany was at the receiving end in the doubles semifinals as well, as Sania and Sasha Abraham won comfortably at 7-6 (7-5), 6-3.

Earlier, the Indian pair had got the better of Norfeldt and Andhrea Kolczonay of Hungary in a closely fought doubles quarterfinal encounter, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

At the Copa Merengue Cup 2001, a grade 4 event being played at Santa Domingo in the Dominican Republic, Saurabh Singh lost in the quarter-finals to Sebastian Salas of Mexico 4-6, 5-7.

Stephen Amritraj of the United States, seeded eighth, entered the quarter-finals of the tournament, where he will face third seed Federico Barton of Mexico. Earlier, in the second round, he defeated qualifier Jorge Williams of Mexico 6-3; 6-4.

Stephen is former Indian Davis Cup star Anand Amritraj's son.

Earlier report:
Indian juniors shine on ITF circuit