Mirza-Niculesku shock champions

Cincinnati (USA): Sania Mirza and Monica Niculescu stunned Wimbledon doubles champions Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova to storm into the quarterfinals of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open here.

The unseeded Indo-Romanian pair shocked their fifth seed rivals 6-3, 1-6, 10-6 in the second round of the $ 2,000,000 hard court event.

They had earlier beaten local pair of Melanie Oudin and Jamie Hampton 6-4, 7-6 in the opening round.

Meanwhile in Toronto, Mahesh Bhupathi remained the lone Indian survivor in the ATP Rogers Cup as Somdev Devvarman, Leander Paes and Rohan Bopanna crashed out of the Masters Series event following defeats in their respective draws.

Somdev entered the singles event as a lucky loser after Fernando Gonzalez pulled out but lost his first round to world number 18 Gael Monfils 7-6(7), 6-3 after a gallant fight.

Third seeded Paes and Czech Lukas Dlouhy, who had got a bye in the first round, lost 6-1, 7-6(6) to the French pair of Julien Benneteau and Michael Llodra.

Bopanna and his American partner Eric Butorac lost their first round 3-6, 6-3, 10-5 to Frantisek Cermak of Czech republic and Michal Mertinak of Slovakia.

Bhupathi and his Belarusian partner Max Mirnyi, seeded fourth, are into the second round after getting a bye.

Nadal survives

Also in Toronto, top seed Rafael Nadal battled out a marathon tiebreaker on Wednesday to reach the third round, downing Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6(12), 6-3.

The first-set decider tied the record of the longest ever played by the Spaniard, who went the same distance in 2009 but lost 14-12 to Richard Gasquet.

The unseeded Wawrinka had five set point chances of his own which he could not convert. Nadal took the first set on his fourth chance. “I'm pretty happy with how I played,” said Nadal. “I was worried about this match, I knew it would be dangerous against Stan.

Nadal is playing in his first ATP event since winning a second Wimbledon title. He also had physical therapy on his knee, a constant cause of worry in his career.

Second-seeded Novak Djokovic struggled to close out his opening win in searing heat while title holder Andy Murray played it cool as he rallied for a victory over Xavier Malisse.

Djokovic required multiple match points to down Frenchman Julien Benneteau 7-5, 7-5. Murray broke Malisse twice to end the first set and easily powered through to a 7-5, 6-2 victory.

Zvonareva through

Sixth-seeded Vera Zvonareva waited through two rain delays totalling three and a half hours to pull off a come-from-behind victory over Maria Kirilenko in the Cincinnati women's open.The two Russians needed a total of six hours, 54 minutes to complete their match. Zvonareva won 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (3), seizing the victory after a rain delay of two hours and 19 minutes that came with the 28th—ranked Kirilenko leading 5-2 in the third set.

When they returned to the court, Zvonareva won three straight games, and once she'd forced the tiebreaker she took control of that by winning the first three points.

The results: Toronto Masters: Gael Monfils bt Thiemo de Bakker 7-5, 6-3; David Nalbandian bt Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-0; Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. bt Mikhail Youzhny 1-6, 7-6(4), 7-5; Michael Llodra bt Nicolas Almagro 7-6 (5), 6-2; Nikolay Davydenko bt Fabio Fognini 7-5, 6-1; Novak Djokovic bt Julien Benneteau 7-5, 7-5; Andy Murray bt Xavier Malisse 7-5, 6-2; Jeremy Chardy bt Fernando Verdasco 6-7 (7), 7-6 (5), 6-2; Lu Yen-Hsun bt Paul-Henri Mathieu 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5); Rafael Nadal bt Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (12), 6-3.

Cincinnati WTA tournament: Elena Vesnina bt Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-4; Li Na bt Sara Errani 6-2, 6-2; Flavia Pennetta bt Monica Niculescu 6-0, 6-1; Vera Zvonareva bt Maria Kirilenko 7-5, 2-6, 7-6 (2); Shahar Peer bt Nuria Llagostera Vives 6-3, 6-2; Ana Ivanovic bt Yaroslava Shvedova 6-1, 7-5; Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova bt Elena Dementieva 6-1, 6-3; Kim Clijsters bt Dinara Safina 7-5, 6-2; Maria Sharapova bt Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-1 . — Agencies