Sania Mirza entered the Australian Open main draw beating Canada’s Stephanie Dubois 6-2, 6-3 in the final qualifying round on Sunday.
The Indian, however, faces a mighty challenge, as she will face former world number one Justine Henin in the first round.Sania, seeded 24th, has slipped to 145th position in the WTA rankings owing to a recurring wrist injury and therefore had to play in the qualifiers.
The first set saw both players struggling with their first serves. The Indian had four double faults in the first set and six in total. Sania then broke Dubois thrice in the second set while dropping her serve once.
Paes-Bhupathi to face Karlovic-Vemic
Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, playing their first Grand Slam together in nine years, will open their Australian Open campaign against Croatian Ivo Karlovic and Dusan Vemic of Serbia.
{{/usCountry}}Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, playing their first Grand Slam together in nine years, will open their Australian Open campaign against Croatian Ivo Karlovic and Dusan Vemic of Serbia.
{{/usCountry}}The Indians, seeded third, are in the same half as tenth seeds Rohan Bopanna and Aisam Qureshi. Bopanna-Qureshi faces the Brazilians Andre Sa and Franco Ferreiro in the first round.