Sania Mirza continued her brilliant run in Tokyo when she knocked out top seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva in the quarter-finals of the Japan Open Tennis Championships on Friday.

The 18-year-old, ranked 37th in the world, came back strongly after losing the first set to win 5-7, 6-2, 6-4.

• Images from the Japan Open

The first set was evenly matched, but Zvonareva, ranked 24th in the world, held on to win 7-5.

Thereafter, it was all Sania as she comfortably marched through the next two sets to complete victory in her first appearance at the Japan Open.

In the semi-finals, she will face France's Tatiana Golovin, who beat Ai Sugiyama of Japan 3-6, 6-2, 6-2.

Eighth seed Sania had beaten Japan's Aiko Nakamura 6-1, 6-4 on Thursday to advance to the last eight.

In the other semi-final, second seed Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic will take on fourth seed Russian Maria Kirilenko.

However, in the women's doubles, Sania was knocked out in the semi-finals. She and her Israeli partner Shahar Peer went down 6-1, 6-4 to Argentina's Gisela Dulko and Russian Maria Kirilenko.

In the men's doubles, India's Mahesh Bhupathi and partner Simon Aspelin of Sweden went down to Justin Gimelstob of the United States and Australia's Todd Perry 5-0, 5-4 in the quarter-finals.