Sania sails into second round of Australian Open

Melbourne, Jan 16 (UNI) The sweltering heat at the Melbourne Park was hardly a deterrent for Sania Mirza as she carved out a facile 6-3, 7-5 victory over Ukrainian Olga Savchuk to sail into the second round of the Australian Open here today.

The Indian will now take on the winner of the match between Japan's Aiko Nakamura and 32nd seed Eleni Daniilidou of Greece.

The temperature soared to 40 degrees Celsius here but Sania seemed unaffected by the searing heat and had no trouble getting past the Ukrainian, who is ranked 49 spots below her in the WTA rankings.

The Hyderabadi star, known for her explosive forehands, held her serve and broke her rival twice in the first set to race away with the opener in little over 40 minutes.

Savchuk struggled to cope with the heat and committed six double faults -- besides wasting three break points -- as she surrendered the opening set without putting up much fight.

The 19-year-old Ukrainian, however, made a spirited comeback in the second set and managed to break Sania once but the fightback proved too little too late as the Indian had wrested the initiative by then.

An exhausted Savchuk paid for committing 23 unforced errors as a stronger Sania quelled her challenge to seal the match in her favour.

UNI