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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
India’s Sania Mirza and American Bethanie Mattek cruised to the third round of women’s doubles in Wimbledon with a straight-set win over Maria Kirilenko of Russia and Flavia Pennetta of Italy here Saturday.
The 13th seed pair scored a convincing 6-3, 6-4 win in little over an hour.
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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
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Sania reaching out for the ball in her second round match at wimbledon 2008
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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
 A profligate 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 on Thursday.
The 21-year-old Indian did manage to overcame a sloppy start after losing the first set on love but awful misses on easy points proved fatal for her.
Sanchez showed acumen and tremendous grit and was rewarded for her consistency and hard work.
Sania, seeded 32nd, 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, the Indians 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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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
June 29: India's challenge at the Wimbledon mixed doubles event collapsed in the second round with all four in the fray crashing out of the event.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Sania Mirza lost to the unseeded Russian pair of Igor Andreev and Maria Kirilenko 6-7, (4), 3-6.
Leander Paes and Australian Rennae Stubbs, seeded 10th, squandered three break points in the decider to go down 3-6, 6-3, 3-6 to Swede Jonas Bjorkman and Australian Alicia Molik.
Rohan Bopanna and his Belarussian partner Tatiana Poutchek, meanwhile, went down 3-6, 6-7 (1) to 13th seeded Swede-American pair of Simon Aspelin and Lisa Raymond in the first of the three mixed doubles matches featuring Indians on Saturday.
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
Until a few months ago off-court controversies had infuriated Sania Mirza to such an extent that she vowed never to play on Indian courts again but now the tennis ace says she actually enjoyed the experience as it helped her grow.
"I think it's all been an experience, and, as funny as that sounds, I've enjoyed everything, because if I stop living my life and stop enjoying it, then I probably would have quit a long time ago," Sania said after advancing to the second round of Wimbledon Championships with a hard-fought first-round win.
Sania's roller-coaster career has been marred by several off-court furores. Opposition to her on-court attire, which was dubbed skimpy by some fundamentalist Muslim groups, a court case for allegedly disrespecting the national flag were just a couple of unwanted issues she has been forced to grapple with since turning pro in 2005. |
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Wednesday, 25 June 2008 |
 Sania Mirza overcame an injury scare and a spirited challenge from unseeded Catalina Castano of Colombia to advance to the second round of the Wimbledon Championships on Tuesday.
The Indian ace, seeded 32, looked rusty from her recent injury lay-off but came good at crucial moments to score a 7-6 (3), 3-6, 6-4 win over Castano, who has now failed to cross the first round in all her six attempts at Wimbledon.
Sania will next face Spain's Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who beat Martina Muller of Germany 6-1, 6-1 earlier in the day.
After saving two break-points in her first game, Sania went into the lead after a break in the fifth game. The next three games went against the serve before the players restored order to push the first set into a tie-break. |
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Saturday, 21 June 2008 |
 Sania Mirza is quietly confident that her ‘new wrist’ will stand up to the rigours of top flight tennis when she plays at Wimbledon, starting on Monday.
The 21-year-old missed the French Open after undergoing a reconstructive surgery on her right — the playing — hand in April and returned to action only a fortnight ago, when she played in the Birmingham grass court event.
Grass, a faster surface, suits Sania’s game. But the speed of the surface also means greater stress on the wrist. |
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Thursday, 19 June 2008 |
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza has been seeded 32nd for the Wimbledon grass court championship starting here next week.
The Indian ace, who returned to the court only a week ago after missing the entire clay court season due to a wrist injury which required surgery, did not experience any major dip in her WTA rankings during the layoff and is 33rd in the latest chart, which is the sole criteria used for deciding the seedings.
Sania's best performance at the All England Club was her third-round appearance last year. She won the junior Wimbledon doubles title before turning pro in 2005. |
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Tuesday, 17 June 2008 |
 Sania Mirza shocked fifth seed Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-3 to advance to the second round of the Ordina Open here on Monday.
There was good news for India in the men’s section as well, with Rohan Bopanna advancing to the second round of the Wimbledon warm-up event on grass.
He posted a 6-7(8), 7-6(2), 6-4 win over former Roland Garros finalist Martin Verkerk.
Sania broke Pennetta, who is World No. 23, four times in the first set and dropped her serve thrice. In the second set, the Indian raced to a 5-1 lead, with breaks in the second, fourth and sixth games.
Pennetta got a break back in the seventh but the Indian served the match out after that. |
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Thursday, 12 June 2008 |
Sania Mirza’s comeback from injury ended in agony as she lost in the second round of the WTA DFS Classic here on Wednesday. Sania, seeded sixth, went down 6-3, 6-0 to New Zealand’s Marina Erakovic.
However, Sunitha, a qualifier, continued her winning run as she rallied to beat local challenger Naomi Cavaday 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. |
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