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Indian Wells, Mar 15: Sania Mirza returned to her winning ways, advancing to the third round of the $2.1 million Pacific Life Open here defeating Olga Savchuk of Ukraine in a tough three-setter.

The 21-year-old Hyderabad resident, ranked 32nd in the world, lost the opening set Friday night but came back strongly to register a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 victory over Savchuk who is way behind Sania in the rankings at the 96th position.

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Sania, seeded 21 here, had received a bye in the first round.

In the doubles draw, Sania and her American partner Bethanie Mattek are seeded seventh and the duo will face Tatiana Poutchek of Belarus and Russian Anastasia Rodionova in the second round.

The Indo-US pair had beaten Poland's Klaudia Jans and Gabriela Navratilova of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2 in their opening encounter.

Meanwhile, in the $3.589 million men's Masters Series event at the same venue, eighth seed Leander Paes and Paul Hanley of Australia thrashed Spanish combination of Rafael Nadal and David Ferrer 6-3, 6-4 in the opening round of the doubles competition Friday.

Paes' estranged partner Mahesh Bhupathi and Bahamas' Mark Knowles, seeded sixth, will take on German Christopher Kas and Rogier Wassen of the Netherlands in their opening match.