Sania crashes out

India's Sania Mirza saw her US Open hopes come crashing down when she lost a second-round tie 6-3, 6-4 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.

India's Sania Mirza saw her US Open hopes come crashing down on Tuesday when she lost a second-round tie 6-3, 6-4 to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia.

HT Image

The 23-year-old from Hyderabad, who is battling back after dropping out of the world top 100 due to a serious wrist injury, had raised hopes with a fine run of four wins in a row in New York coming through the qualifiers and a first-round tie against Michelle Larcher de Brito of Portugal.

But in the 20th-seeded Pavlyuchenkova, who has two title wins this year and who reached the semi-finals in Cincinnati in the buildup to New York, she came up against a big hitter who is targetting the world top 10 this year.

Leander Paes of India and Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic too crashed out of the first round while India's Rohan Bopanna and Pakistan's Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi advanced.