Sania Mirza crashes out of the Mutua Madrid Open in the first round
Indian qualifier Sania Mirza was ousted by her doubles partner, Russian Elena Vesnina in a first round defeat at the 2011 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Sunday. The 24-year-old Indian registered a 4-6, 3-6 loss against Vesnina
to exit from the first round.
World number 77 Mirza faced her best friend and doubles partner, Vesnina for the first time at Park Manzanares but posed no threat to her. She lost in one hour and twenty-three minutes to trail in their head-to-head series by 0-1
against the Russian.
Indian tennic ace hasn’t had much progress this season though she reached the quarter-finals at Charleston as a qualifier. However, she clinched two doubles titles earlier this season with Vesnina.
The Hyderabadi looked jittery in the first set though she held her opening serve plausibly. She converted two out of six breakpoint opportunities to her advantage and registered an awesome 80 percent win on her lower first serve
share. However, Mirza saved only two out of five breakpoints faced to eventually lose the set by 4-6 score line. In addition to this, she clobbered five double faults and several unforced errors to gift away her serves.
The Indian raised her level of game in the final set and clobbered only two double faults this time. She smashed the only ace of the set and produced a slightly higher first serve share of 69 percent as compared to Russian’s 65
percent. Mirza registered a convincing 50 percent win on it and converted both breakpoint opportunities to her advantage. Despite her better performance, she saved only four out of eight breakpoints faced to seal the set by a 6-3 loss.
World number 44, Vesnina on the other side of net is in good shape this season. She recently made a final berth at Charleston before losing to world number one Caroline Wozniacki. The Russian clobbered zero double faults and completely
outshined her friend throughout the match. She produced a higher first serve share of 64 percent and earned an acceptable 63 percent win on it. Vesnina then converted seven out of thirteen breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to clinch the match. She
will next face her second seeded country woman, Vera Zvonareva who overpowered Swiss Patty Schnyder in a three set thriller to reach this spot.
Sania, however, remains in contention for the doubles event of this WTA Premier Mandatory event of prize money worth euro 3,500,000. She gears up to face eighth-seeded Czech pair of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova,
with Vesnina.
Tags: