Sania-Bethanie through to quarters

Cincinnati: Top seeds Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mettack cruised into the quarterfinals of USD 175,000 Cincinnati Open after a straight set win over the Colombian-Chinese pair of Catalina Castano and Meng Yuan.

The Indo-American pair overwhelmed its unseeded rivals 6-4 6-0 in a first round match of the Tier 3 hard court tournament here on Tuesday.

Sania and Bethanie were broken just once in the near hour-long contest.

In the next round, the duo will take on either wildcards Kirsten Flower (USA) and Connie Hsu (China), or Lilia Osterloh (USA) and Anastasia Rodionova (Russia).

Sania, teaming up with Poland's Marta Domachowska, finished runner-up here last year.

The 20-year-old Indian had earlier entered the second round of singles, where she will be up against Varvara Lepchenko.