Sania enters quarters, Somdev, Karan in pre-quarters

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GUANGZHOU: Sania Mirza toppled sixth seed Chinese Shuai Zhang to seal a quarter-final berth in the women's singles while Somdev Devvarman and Karan Rastogi routed their rivals to move to pre-quarterfinals of the men's singles in the Asian Games Friday.

Unseeded Sania, a silver medallist at the 2006 Asian Games, scored a 6-2, 6-2 win in the second round at the Aoti Tennis Centre.

Contrary to what the scoreline suggests, Sania was quite rusty during the one hour and 17 minutes match and had to battle hard against her Chinese opponent.

However, for Somdev and Rastogi it was just a stroll in the park as they demolished their rivals easily. Seventh seed Rastogi took the court first and crushed Myalikkuli Mamedkuliyev of Turkmenistan 6-0, 6-0 in just 45 minutes. Second seed Somdev then thrashed Jabor Mohammed Al Mutawa of Qatar with an identical scoreline in just 37 minutes.

In the men's doubles matches later, Somdev combined with Sanam Singh to beat Johnny Arcilla and Ruben Gonzales of Philippines 6-4, 6-2 and advance to the quarter-finals.

Rastogi was not lucky when he took court for the second time as he and Vishnu Vardhan withdrew from their match against Jun Young Kim and Min Jae Seol of South Korea. After splitting the first two sets, the South Koreans were leading 1-0 when the Indian pair opted out of the match.