STANFORD, California, 26 July 2007 — India’s Sania Mirza rallied to defeat Japan’s Akiko Morigami 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5) here Tuesday and reach the second round of a $600,000 WTA hardcourt tournament.

Mirza booked a date at the US Open tuneup event against French sixth seed Tatiana Golovin, who defeated Ukraine qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova 6-2, 6-2.

Austrian eighth seed Sybille Bammer advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 triumph over Japan’s Ai Sugiyama. Bammer booked a second-round date with American Meilen Tu.

Russian qualifier Yaroslava Shvedova rallied to eliminate Ukraine’s Julia Vakulenko 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, setting up a second-round match with Swiss fourth seed Patty Schnyder.

Israeli fifth seed Shahar Peer lost five of the first six games but rallied to defeat France’s Camile Pin 7-6 (7 5), 6-2. Peer plays Belarus qualifier Olga Govortsova next.

Romanian Pavel Surprises

Local Favorite Ljubicic

In Umag, Croatia, Romania’s Andrei Pavel ground out a surprise 7-6, 7-5 victory over Croatia No. 1 and third seed Ivan Ljubicic in the first round of the Croatian Open yesterday.

After narrowly losing the first set of the match that finished well past midnight after the program was disrupted by rain, Ljubicic took a 3-1 lead in the second set and the contest appeared to be heading for a decider.

However, too many unforced errors enabled the 33-year old Pavel to break back twice and clinch a place in the second round. Ljubicic is the second leading player to be eliminated in the first round, joining second seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia on the sidelines.

On Tuesday, four seeds — four-time winner here Carlos Moya of Spain, his compatriot David Ferrer, Guillermo Canas of Argentina and Italy’s Filippo Volandri — secured their places in the second round.

Top seed and last year’s runner-up Serb Novak Djokovic will face compatriot Viktor Troicki later on Wednesday for a spot in the quarterfinals.

Roddick, Blake Cruise

Through in Indianapolis

Defending champion James Blake and top seed Andy Roddick won their opening matches in straight sets at the Indianapolis Championships on Tuesday.

Blake beat 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson 7-5, 7-6 while Roddick, playing his first match since his five-set quarterfinal loss to Frenchman Richard Gasquet at Wimbledon, passed wildcard Alex Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-0.

The second-seeded Blake believes the momentum he came to Indianapolis with following a final showing at Los Angeles last week, when he lost a three-set battle to Czech Radek Stepanek, helped him take out the Swede.

“Luckily I got a lot of confidence coming from the final in LA,” Blake said. “I was able to go for my shots when set points down because I was able to have that confidence.” Blake broke Johansson’s serve in the 11th game of the first set and then served out the set to love with an ace on the final point.

In the second set tiebreaker, Johansson had two set points, but the world No. 10 Blake won 11-9 on his third match point when Johansson netted a backhand. Roddick took advantage of four of 11 break point opportunities in the match, breaking serve in the fifth game of the first set.

In contrast, Roddick never offered the 191st-ranked Kuznetsov an opportunity to break his serve. Fourth seed Mardy Fish fought off two match points and patella tendonitis in his right knee to win a 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 first-round match over fellow Floridian Vince Spadea. Third-seeded Dmitry Tursunov defeated American journeyman Michael Russell 6-3, 7-5, while sixth seed Lee Hyung-taik of South Korea beat Donald Young 6-2, 6-4.

Nicolas Kiefer of Germany withdrew from the tournament because of a left knee injury that forced him out of last week’s Los Angeles semifinal.