SANIA MIRZA says she is happy to beat the crowd favourite Tamarine Tanasugarn yesterday.

Drained out from a tough midnight encounter with Taiwanese Chan Yung-jan in Tuesday's first round, Tamarine was nowhere near her best and went down haplessly to the fifth-seed 6-4 2-6 6-1.

After a three-set match with Chan and 16 hours later, the 29-year-old said the heavy schedule had taken its toll.

"I was still exhausted from that match," the former finalist complained.

"I went to bed at 3am and had to get up at 8am. The programme was cruel. I was stunned they arranged a tight schedule for me.

"If the match was on Thursday, the result would have been better. I tried my best out there. It was just a matter of bad luck to be given a tight programme,'' she added.

The first set was a pain for fans to watch with both players barely managing to keep the ball on the court. Tamarine was struggling with her first serves and at 3-4 buried two easy backhands to put Mirza up at 5-3. The Indian returned the favour by serving four double faults the next game. The crowd shook their heads from time to time in utter disbelief at the insipid fare they were being served.

But in the second set, the match took a turn for the better with Tamarine moving Mirza around the court with her deep groundstrokes that clipped the lines to find an equaliser at one set all after just 26 minutes.

Tamarine wanted a break before the decider and when she returned to the court, she did not appear fresh. Instead it was the aggressive Indian who dictated points with her huge serves and razor-sharp groundstrokes.

"It was an up-and-down match. It was just a matter of who controlled the points better. I was happy to get through the match when I was not at my best,'' said the 49th-ranked Mirza, who outplayed the Thai in the Doha Asian Games in December.

"I knew she could be very dangerous, especially when she plays at home. I'm happy to beat someone who is the crowd favourite and used to be in the top 20,'' added Mirza, who is making her second quarter-final appearance this season after reaching the semis in Hobart.

She will play third-seeded Mara Santangelo of Italy for the first time tomorrow. "She is great. She has a different kind of style. I just have to take a rest and get ready for the match," she said.

Tamarine had the consolation of progressing in the doubles quarter-finals. She and Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine beat Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-4 3-6 12-10 in the first round of the night session. The Thai-Ukrainian team faced match point at 8-9 in the super tiebreak but fought it off bravely.

Two Russian challengers were stopped in the second round yesterday. Tennis mom Sybille Bammer of Austria, a semi-finalist last year, fought back from a break down in the second set to beat Anastasia Rodionova 6-2 7-5. Santangelo dismissed Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2 6-4.

Chinese fourth-seeded Peng Shuai, one of the three double-fisted hitters apart from top seed Marion Bartoli and eighth-seeded Aiko Nakamura remaining in the draw, bounced back from a first set deficit to topple Romina Oprandi of Italy 6-7 (5-7) 6-1 6-3.

In the doubles first round, Nicole Pratt of Australia and Mara Santangelo of Italy beat Alicia Molik of Australia and Bryanne Stewart of South Africa 6-2 6-0.

Lerpong Amsa-ngiam

The Nation

Pattaya