Carlsbad, August 1:

Sania Mirza of India used pressure at the net in the third set to pull off a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2 upset win over No 12 seed Shahar Peer of Isreal in the Acura Classic.

Mirza, a finalist at Stanford on Sunday, beat her doubles partner by going to the net more often than usual in the final set, trying to shorten rallies. The strategy paid off for Mirza, who said she was tired from playing all week at the Bank of the West Classic.

Mirza decided uncharacteristically to come to the net in the third set against her opponent. It worked as Mirza jumped out to a 4-1 lead. Mirza, who equalled her career high ranking of No 31 this week after her runner-up finish at Stanford, broke Peer’s serve nine times.

Serbian No 2 Jelena Jankovic, ranked third in the world, had little trouble in her first appearance, beating American Vania King 6-3, 6-0. Seventh seeded Martina Hingis struggled in her first match before claiming a 7-5, 6-2 second-round win over Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands. Hingis dominated as she got off to a 5-1 lead, but then dropped four games in a row as she began to commit numerous unforced errors.

Hingis reeled off two straight games to take the set before settling down in the second set. Hingis made 20 unforced errors in the first set and hit just 16 winners. But Krajicek was more inconsistent with 27 first-set unforced errors.

Russian No 4 Nadia Petrova advanced with a 6-3, 7-5 second-round victory over countrywoman Elena Bovina. No 5 Marion Bartoli of France struggled in her second-round match before defeating Japan’s Aiko Nakamura, 7-6 (4), 6-1. Bartoli was the runner-up to Venus Williams at Wimbledon.

In other first-round matches involving ranked players, No 15 seed Sybille Bammer of Austria was a 6-4, 7-6 (5) winner over Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine, and 16th-seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic defeated Meilen Tu of the United States, 6-4, 6-3.

Legg Mason

WASHINGTON: Andy Roddick cruised into the third round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Czech Tomas Zib.

It was the first match for top-seeded Roddick, a two-time winner of the event and

this year’s top-seeded player, since losing to Frank Dancevic in the semi-finals last week

in Indianapolis.

In the third round Roddick will face either 15th-seeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic or fellow American Paul Goldstein, who reached the second round on Tuesday by beating India’s Somdev Dev Varman 6-4, 6-2.

Third-seeded Marat Safin had a much tougher time than Roddick, finally beating Jan Hernych 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 to reach the third round. In a first round match, Tim Henman double-faulted on match point in a third-set tiebreaker to hand American John Isner a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (4) win in just his second ATP tour event.