Sania loses Cincinnati Open, slips two places

Sania Mirza’s first quarterfinal appearance on the WTA tour could not help much to the Indian tennis icon as she slipped two places to be 42nd in the latest rankings announced on Monday.
Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia gained five places to be 21st after reaching final of the Cincinnati Open, and Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic jumped to 38th from her previous 41st rankings following her impressive run as fourth seed in Palermo, Italy affecting Sania’s position on the chart which was otherwise unaltered for most of the top players.

Sania had lost to top seed patty Schnyder of Switzerland in the quarterfinal of Cincinnati Open at Ohio.

US-based Indian Shikha Uberoi was placed 171st three places down from her last week’s 168th position but Delhi’s Ankita Bhambri at 345th, after gaining three places, was the third highest ranked singles player from the country.

Sania’s feat of reaching finals in the Cincinnati Open alongside Poland’s Marta Domachowska, resulted in her career-best 31st rank in doubles. She was 33rd last week.

Uberoi slipped one place to 144th and seasoned Rushmi Chakravarthy maintained 358th spot. Ankita was placed 390th in the doubles.

On the men’s chart, harsh Mankad scaled a whopping 109 places to displace Rohan Bopanna as the top ranked Indian, being 287th. Bopanna and Karan Rastogi lost five places each to be 298th and 344th behind mankad.

In the doubles, veterans Leander Paes was unmoved at 14th while his ex-partner Mahesh Bhupathi climbed up one place to be 23rd, Bopanna was 141st.