Mason, Ohio (AHN) - The women who compete on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour are steamrolling toward the upcoming U.S. Open.

At the Cincinnati Women's Open Monday, third-seeded Sania Mirza took down Abigail Spears 6-4, 6-3 after a slow start, and seventh-seeded Akiko Morigami beat Camille Pin 4-6, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (2) in a close match in two first-round match-ups.

Mirza dropped the first three games of the match against Spears, ranked 140th in the world, before getting her game in gear.

Morigami, who recently had 2007 Wimbledon champion Venus Williams on the ropes at Wimbledon, leading the eventual champion 5-3 in the third set of their third-round match before falling 7-5, was losing the tiebreak to Pin 5-1 before putting her game in overdrive to pull out a Williams-like come-from-behind victory over the stunned Pin.

"All of a sudden, I said, 'Hmm, I should start coming to the net,' and that seemed to work," said Morigami. "I think I was lucky to win the match. It was hard for me to score. I definitely missed a lot of balls. I didn't execute my game plan."

In the first match of the night, Lilia Osterloh overwhelmed Viktoriya Kutuzova 6-2, 6-3 for her first win against Kutuzova in four matches.

"Obviously, I'm more comfortable on the hardcourt," said Osterloh.

After falling behind 2-0 in the third set, Morigami broke Pin's serve with two exquisitely placed drop shots to take a 6-5 lead.

Pin broke Morigami right back, fighting off four match points in the 12th game to force the tiebreaker.

"I knew I wouldn't play my best tennis in the first round after Wimbledon and this being my first time back on hardcourt," said Morigami,

The tournament has been diminished by withdrawals of some of the game's best players, including Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli, Australian Open Champion Serena Williams, defending champion Vera Zvonareva and last year's runner-up, Katarina Srebotnik.