Sania bows out of doubles event too

Deccan Herald

Melbourne, UNI:
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SANIA Mirza crashed out of the Australian Open after a straight sets loss to Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands in the women`s singles second round on Thursday.

Sania recovered from a sluggish start to put up a tougher challenge in the latter part of the match but committed far too many unforced errors to go down to her 17-year-old Dutch opponent 6-3, 7-5.

The 19-year-old Indian, ranked 32 in the world, was nervous in the first set when she was broken four times.

She picked up some momentum in the second set when she bounced back from a break and saved two match-points in the tenth game.

Sania struggled to get the timing in her shots throughout and even her ever-reliable weapon of forehand kept misfiring.

As it were, she hit a forehand long to concede the match after an hour and 21 minutes committing five double-faults and 35 unforced errors along the way.

Michaella, world number 43 and the 2004 US Open and world junior champion, broke Sania in the very first game of the match, pouncing on her too weak second serves.

The Dutch teenager, who had won two Tour titles in the last four months, dropped serve in the next game but got back the lead, a forehand setting up a volley winner for breakpoint and Sania obliging with a wide forehand.