India's Sania Mirza staged a grand recovery to beat top seed Martina Hingis 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 in the second round of the Korea Open on Thursday, and gain quick revenge on the former world No 1 for a defeat at the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata last week.
"A true champion is one who comes back from being down. When I went out to serve at 5-4, I hadn't held my serve for the last two games and I told myself to do whatever was necessary," Sania, the first Indian to win a WTA title in 2004 in her hometown of Hyderabad, said.
"This is the fittest I've been in the last two years and it's the best I've felt this year," she added.
After losing the first set in which both players struggled to hold serve, Mirza raised her level of play and was able to push the Swiss world number eight around the court with her powerful groundstrokes.
Easing through the second without dropping a game, the world number 59 broke her opponent in the ninth game of the deciding set and held on to deny Hingis a chance of a third title this season.
Hingis had beaten Mirza in the semi-finals on her way to the Sunfeast Kolkata Open title on Sunday to go with an Italian Open success earlier this year.
The 25-year-old five-time Grand Slam winner retired in 2002 due to foot and ankle injuries, but made a full-time comeback in January.
Mirza moved on to a quarter-final against Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain, who beat Angelique Widjaja of Indonesia 6-4, 6-3.
In the first round match yesterday, Sania had rallied from a first-set deficit to beat Korean wild card Ya Ra Lee 6-3, 6-0, 6-0.
"It is my third time to play her this year and I guess that it is third time lucky," said Sania, who had also lost to Hingis in Dubai earlier this year.
"Every match is a different match and every week is a different week. This proves that," added Sania.
