Australian Open: Sania crashes out of women`s doubles
Last Updated: Tuesday, January 21, 2014, 15:35
  
Australian Open: Sania crashes out of women`s doubles
Melbourne: Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black squandered a position of strength to go down to world number one Italian combo of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in a hard-fought women`s doubles quarterfinal match at the Australian Open.

The sixth-seeded Indo-Zimbabwean combination lost 2-6 6-3 4-6.

Sania and Cara, who were leading 4-1 at one stage in the third and deciding set, simply wasted the opportunity to cause a major upset and lost to the higher-ranked opponents in an hour and 48 minutes contest.

The top seeds will take on the winner of the match between fourth seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik and unseeded Jarmila Gajdosova and Ajla Tomljanovic in the semifinals.

The Indo-Zimbabwean pair gave a tough fight to Errani and Vinci as they won a total of 81 points as against 89 by the Italians. But as many as 24 unforced errors dented Sania and Cara`s chances.

Errani and Vinci lived up to their top billing in the opening set as they comfortably sealed it off by converting three of the five break points, while saving one of the two that their rivals got.

But Sania and Cara fought back in the second set to stun the Italian girls.

The Indo-Zimbabwean duo hit 11 winners as opposed to eight by the Italians, while they also converted three of the five break points to take the game to the decider.

In the final set, they started off with a bang and opened up a 4-1 lead. But just when it seemed that they would wrap it up easily, the top seeds came from behind to make it 4-4.

The Italian combo saved six of the eight break points to have the last laugh.

Meanwhile, in the juniors girls doubles the Indian combo of Snehadevi Reddy and Dhruthi Tatachar Venugopal lost to top seeds Anhelina Kalinina of Ukraine and Russia`s Elizaveta Kulichkova 1-6 2-6.
PTI

First Published: Tuesday, January 21, 2014, 15:35


comments powered by Disqus
Rank Player
1 Serena Williams (USA)
2 Simona Halep (ROU)
3 Li Na (CHN)
4 Petra Kvitova (CZE)
5 Agnieszka Radawanska
6 Maria Sharapova (RUS)
7 Angelique Kerber (GER)
8 Eugenie Bouchard (CAN)
9 Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
10 Victoria Azarenka (BEL)
Rank Player
1 Novak Djokovic (SRB)
2 Rafael Nadal (ESP)
3 Roger Federer (SUI)
4 Stanislas Wawrinka (SUI)
5 Tomas Berdyc (CZE)
6 David Ferrer (ESP)
7 Milos Raonic (CAN)
8 Grigor Dimitrov (BUL)
9 Andy Murray (GBR)
10 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA)
Serena Williams Bio
Victoria Azarenka: Bio
Rafael Nadal: Bio
Roger Federer: Bio
Novak Djokovic: Bio
Rank Player
1 Rafael Nadal
2 Novak Djokovic
3 David Ferrer
4 Andy Murray
5 Juan Martin del Potro
Rank Player
1 Serena Williams
2 Victoria Azarenka
3 Maria Sharapova
4 Li Na
5 Agnieszka Radwanska