Sania Mirza has put up a great comeback in the pre-quaterfinals of the highly rewarding Pacific Life , Indian Wells Open. Sania beat Shahar Peer from Israel in a thrilling three set match.

After losing the first set in the tie-break, Sania held her nerves and never gave up any easy points to take the next two sets 7-5 and 6-3. Sania is seeded number 21 in this tournament, while her ATP ranking before the tounament started was 32. Shahar Peer is also Sania’s former doubles partner, whom she has played with in previous Grandslam tournaments as well.

Thats not all, Sania has continued her impressive showing in the doubles event to reach the same stage there as well. The 21-year-old Indian who is now partnering with Bethanie Mattek from the USA managed to beat Tatiana Poutchek and Anastasia Rodionova in a thrilling three setter match. The last set was won by the Indian-US pair 10-7 which takes them to the quarters.

The closest competition to Sania is Na Li from China who is currently ranked 32nd in the world 49 points behind Mirza who has a tally of 931 points.

Sania lost in the Aussie open in a good match again Venus Williams providing good competition atleast in the first set which she took to the tie-break.

Her best performance came in the Mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi but failed to win in the Finals getting beaten in straights sets.

Sania Mirza has now notched up a total prize money over a million us dollars.

Meahwhile in doubles Mirza and her partner Bethanie Mattek of the USA entered the third round of the US Open defeating Australian-Slovak duo of Bryanne Stewart and Jarmila Gajdosova on Saturday. The Indo-US team won the match - 6-2, 6-2.

Sania Mirza now enters the top 30 club in womens ATP rankings. Her good performance in the Acura Classic women’s tennis event in San Diego last week, helped her achieve a ranking so high. Sania lost in straight sets to eventual winner and World No. 2 Maria Sharapova in the QF of the event. Sania has now joined the company of Ramesh Krishnan who was the only other tennis player to rank under 30 for India. Another of his record could soon be broken of being the highest ranked singles player for India - 23 (achieved in 1987).

Sania’s impressive showing continued with a win over World no.12 - Martina Hingis in the second round of the East West Bank Classic. Mirza has now played Martina 4 times and the head to-head is at par. Sania took 1h, 36mins to win 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. Sania will now face the winner of Shahar Peer and Virginie Razano in the 3rd round.

There was good news for Sania this week and she has now reached her career best ranking of 31. The 20-year-old Indian jumped four places after making her third final appearance at Stanford, that she had attained two years ago in October.

The Indian-Israel pair beat the european team in straight sets : 6-4 6-3 after their match was interrupted by rain on monday. The next match for the two ladies is going to be extremely tough when they come up against the top seeds - Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur.

If rain permits Sania will play her 1st round mixed doubles match with fellow Indian Mahesh Bhupathi against the pair of Janette Hasurova(Slovakia) and David Skoch(Czech Republic).

Sania is ranked 52nd in the world and is unseeded for the tournament. She has played in the French Open twice and lost in the first round both times. She returned from injury recently and has not been in the best of form losing early in the last two tournaments she played in. She should be a clear favourite against Brianti.

She has a potentially difficult second round tie against 7th seeded Serbian, Ana Ivanovic. Also in her part of the draw are 12th seed Daniela Hantuchova and 3rd seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who she could come up against in the quarter-finals. You can come back anytime to check the progress she makes throughout the tournament, which begins on Monday.

The Morocco open begins tomorrow and is a $145,000 prize winning clay court event. Sania will take part in the womens double even too and is seeded first in that too. She will partner American Vania King and will take on Alla Kudryavtseva and Olga Savchuk.

Sania’s singles opponenent is not decided yet since she will be taking on a qualifier who will be adjudged today. Lets wish Sania best of luck for her comeback!

Sania, has now started her comeback making a few appearances at the tennis complex in Hyderabad where she practises. She has returned to the court playing for short durations but nothing too intense. Lets just hope everything goes all well and the Indian tennis star can make a great comeback at the French open.

South African trainer Heath Mathew has given Sania a strict schedule which she has to follow in an effort to make successful recovery to full match fitness.

Mirza plans to take part in the German open which begins on May 7 but if that doesn’t happen the contingency plan seems to be participating atleast in the Morocco Open which commences a week later. When asked about what she would to do, she said, “We will see how things develop over the next four to five days.”

Imran, her father also metioned that she should take one step at a time. “She looks rusty after the long break,” he said.