Indian teenage tennis sensation Sania Mirza was upset by unfancied Hungarian Melinda Czink, ranked 121, in the second round of the Sunfest Open, Kolkata on Wednesday.
Third seed and World No. 34, Sania Mirza, the toast of India after a sensational year that has lifted her to 34 in the world rankings, swept the first set before losing 6-0 4-6 4-6.
On the first set of the match Sania Mirza came out firing on all cylinders, never once putting a serve, volley, forehand or foot out, and swept the Hungarian off her feet and into the second set in the blink of an eye.
Set II was a tough fight, with Sania Mirza getting broken in the very first game. But she broke back in the very next to stabilise things. But not for long.
Come the seventh game and Sania Mirza, the double faults made their presence felt and the teenager ended up giving her serve away on one. 4-3 to Czink, who hold her serve to make it 5-3.
Sania Mirza’s serve became erratic and she double faulted twice in the ninth game, the second taking the game to deuce. An ace inbetween didn’t make up for blunders, as Czinks forehand reigned supreme.
A couple of deuces later, Sania Mirza had the advantage. Then an objection from Czink over a baseline call must have been a bit too strong for the chair umpire’s liking and she was giving a court violation, and docked a point.
So Sania lived to see another game. In vain, as she squanders double break points. Czink save the first with a brilliant serve and volley, and Sania helped her to deuce by netting a forehand. Two more forehands into the net later, and Czink had taken the second set.
Sania Mirza lost her way in the first half of the third set, going down 0-3 in a flash. She suddenly found herself facing the prospect of giving a set away to love herself.
The errors crept in further, frustration made itself felt, the racket was thrown a couple of times and the first serve fell to an all-time low.
People began shifting uncomfortably in their seats. What was going on? A sigh of relief went up when Sania Mirza managed to get one break back in the fourth game. And the crowd was back at its vociferous best when Sania stumbled her way back to another break to level things at 4-4.
Surely now she would step it up and give us what we wanted to see --- a famous win against all odds!
But that, sadly, was not to be, as the gutsy Czink, turning a deaf ear to the pro-Sania galleries, upped her game, and broke right back.
The end was in sight, and, though Sania Mirza tried gallantly to get the set back on even keel, even gaining a break point to that effect, it was not to be.
Sania Mirza ended the match as she did the second set — with two forehands into the net.
Posted at 06:02 am by saniamirza
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