East West Bank Classic: The Italian reaches her first Tier II event final with a comeback victory.

CARSON - If a breakthrough victory can come against an unheralded journeyman who has never cracked the world’s top 50, then that’s exactly what Italy’s Flavia Pennetta achieved.

Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek overcame a fighting Russian pair of Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva to book a semifinal berth in the $600,000 WTA East West Bank Classic tournament.

The Indo-American pair, seeded second, pipped the Russian duo 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 in one hour and 14 minutes in the quarter-finals of the Tier II hard court event last night.

India’s Sania Mirza and her American partner Bethanie Mattek crashed out of the Wimbledon doubles event after losing in straight sets to Venus and Serena Williams in the quarterfinals Wednesday. Sania and Mattek, seeded 13th, lost 4-6 3-6 to the 11th seed American sisters in almost an hour and a half to bow out of the championships at the All England Club. The match was twice interrupted by rain.

New Delhi: On Monday night Sania Mirza and Bethaine Mattek of the USA reached the last eight in the women’s doubles.

The
13th seeded Indo-US pair fought back from being a set down to level the
match and took a 2-0 lead in the decider when their opponents Akgul
Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan and Darya Kustova of Belarus retired hurt
with the score at 4-6, 6-4, 2-0.

India’s Sania Mirza brought up one of her best moments at Wimbledon late on Monday evening as she went through to the quarterfinals in the company of her American partner Bethanie Mattek. Sania and Mattek fought back from a set down, levelled the match, and then opened up a 2-0 lead when their opponents, Akgul Amanmuradova from Uzbekistan and Darya Kustova from Belarus conceded the match.