Sania Mirza was hardly made to break sweat by fellow-Indian Rushmi Chakravarthy as she cruised into the second round of the WTA Sunfeast Open in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Though not playing her best tennis, Sania hit 24 winners to beat Rushmi 6-0, 6-4 in less than an hour in the opening round.
The 19-year-old from Hyderabad, seeded fifth, will meet the winner of the match between Russia's Galina Voskoboeva or Germany's Sandra Kloeel.
Sania started in a rush and a nervous Rushmi struggled on the slow indoor surface. The difference in their rankings clearly showed, not only in the game but also the body language of the players.
Sania, ranked 70 in the WTA list, as expected powered through the 457-ranked Rushmi, who seemed resigned to defeat even before she took the court.
After being routed in the first set, the 28-year-old shook off her nerves and tried to stay with Sania in the rallies. A forehand error from Sania gave Rushmi her first game of the match in the opening game of the second set. Rushmi earned her first and only break point of the match in the sixth game, but Sania shrugged it off and consolidated her break in the earlier game to take a 4-2 lead.
Though Rushmi came up with a more spirited performance in the second set it wasn't enough to rattle Sania, as the latter sealed off the match at 6-4 in the second set.
Chakravarthi made the cut for the main draw by accounting for compatriot Tara Iyer 7-5, 6-4 in the second round of the qualifying tournament.
Earlier, India's Shikha Uberoi paid the price for an erratic display and bowed out after a straight sets defeat to the Czech Republic's Hana Sromova. The 23-year-old lost 4-6, 3-6 after 77 minutes.
Sromova set up a second round clash with Russia's Alla Kudryavtseva, who showed the door to compatriot and eighth seed Anastassia Rodionova earlier in the day.
In another upset third seeded Ukrainian Yuliana Fedak was stunned 4-6, 2-6 by Italian Alberta Brianti in the day's first match on centre court.
World number 193 Shikha hit some brilliant winners but undid the good work by conceding too many negative points.
In the opening set, the first nine games went with serve. However, Shikha, down on a break point, committed a double-fault and surrendered the game and set to Sromova.
In the second set, Sromova demolished Shikha's serve in the fourth game to pocket the set and match.
The clash between the two Russian girls saw Kudryavtseva winning 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.
In the first set, Rodionova broke Kudryavtseva in the first, fifth and seventh games. Kudryavtseva, however, staged a strong comeback in the second set as she demolished Rodionova in the first game. However, the higher ranked player drew level by breaking Kudryavtseva in the fourth game.
Kudryavtseva upped the ante and took four games on the trot including two service breaks in the seventh and ninth games to win the second set.
The deciding third set saw Rodionova breaking her opponent in the opening game, but Kudryavtseva fought back to claim the next five games, breaking the serve of the seeded player in the second, fourth and sixth games.
Though Rodionova made a desperate bid for a comeback and broke Kudryavtseva in the seventh game, she was unable to stave off defeat.
Rodionova won the eighth game to make the set score 5-3, before Kudryavtseva retained the ninth to move into the second round.
Other results: Iroda Tulyaganova (Uzbekistan) beat Chia-Jung Chuang (Taiwan) 4-4 (Chuang retired); Casey Dell'Acqua (Australia) beat 2-Karolina Sprem (Croatia) 2-6, 7-6, 6-2; Angelique Widjaja (Indonesia) beat Sanaa Bhambri (India) 6-2; 6-3.
