Sania out of Wimbledon

Sania out of Wimbledon

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Sania Mirza squandered four match points to crash out of the women’s singles event of the Wimbledon Championships as she lost her second round match 0-6, 6-4, 7-9 to qualifier Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez here today. The 21-year-old did manage to overcome a sloppy start after losing the first set, but awful misses on easy points proved decisive. Sanchez showed acumen and tremendous grit and was rewarded for her consistency and hard work.

Sania, seeded 32, wasted three match points in the 13th game of the third set, which allowed her opponent to stage a comeback and the Spaniard did it in style, backing her game by powerful service and intelligent tennis at net.

Sania took long to get her rhythm and within the first 21 minutes, she had lost the first set without managing a single game. The Indian then got her act together as she negotiated the attacking net game of Sanchez through some wonderful lob shots.

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A bright sunny afternoon and a full-thorated support of the partisan crowd failed to inspire Sania Mirza as she crashed out in the second round of the women’s singles event at Wimbledon here on Thursday.
The 21-year old Indian star appeared to have come back from the dead after being blanked in the first set. Yet, when it mattered most Sania simply failed to turn it on as she blew off no less than four match points before going down 0-6 6-4 7-9 to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain in two hours and eight minutes.
On Thursday, Sania could neither keep her nerve, or her serve or her verve. That her break point conversions was a mere 4 out of 15 as compared to her rival’s 7 out of 10 underlined her predicament. Besides, Sania also committed a total of 22 unforced errors as compared to Sanchez’s 13.
The fact that despairing chants of ‘C’mon Sania, C’- mon’ had given way to a more delighted ‘Sania, Sania’ was enough to suggest that the Indian star had displayed good fighting spirit in not only bouncing back after the first set disaster but also looked set to record a comeback win in the decider. That was the time when, after the two players had exchanged two service breaks apeice in the decider, Sania had her first match point on Sanchez’s serve in the 10th game. And her rival was lucky as her return kissed the baseline to keep her alive.
One game later, Sania again had her rival at her mercy when she produced heavy groundstrokes to secure another three match points on her opponent’s serve. But a wide return, a good serve and a deft placement denied Sania before she compounded her own misery by coming up with an unforced error to allow Sanchez to draw level at 6-6.
After all the twists and turns, Sanchez eventually had a measure of her rival when she broke Sania in the 15th game of the final set when the Indian hit a return wide. And then serving for the match, Sanchez nailed Sania with her powerful serve on her first match point.
For a while, it appeared that Sania’s wrist injury had finally taken its toll. She failed to hold her serve even once in the first set, and it wasn’t until the 3rd game of the second set that she managed to win her first game. However, once Sania found her bearings, she started asking questions off her rival with the weight of her power play.
A thundering forehand gave Sania her first break in the set for 3-3 before she turned things around in the 10th game to bring the crowd to their feet. Having made her presence felt with some ground strokes, Sania mixed it up with some beautiful lobs. She set up three set points in the 10th game on Sanchez’s serve albeit without success. On her fourth set point, Sania produced a lovely lob that forced a third set. Unfortunately, the third set was as much about Sania’s inability to win the big points as much as her rival’s tenacity to hang in against all odds.
There was some consolation for Sania later in the day. She and Bethanie Mattek of the US, ranked 13th, defeated the British pair of Elena Baltacha and Naomi Cavaday 6-4, 6-2, to move into the second round of the women’s doubles.