sania mirza

NEW DELHI: Indian ace Sania Mirza fought hard before going down to 10th seed Russian Nadia Petrova in the second round of the Australian Open
on Wednesday
Petrova defeated Sania 6-3, 6-2 in straight sets to move into the third round. Petrova had to struggle before sealing the first set 6-3 in her favour.

Sania was little rusty initially as she made 12 unforced errors as compared to her opponents 10. Sania made three double faults in the opening set while Petrova had none to her name.

Sania bounced back to hold her serve in the second set while Petrova levelled it 1-1. Sania again held her serve to lead 2-1.
Sania had a good chance of breaking Petrova's serve in the fourth game as she led 40-15 but she lost the plot completely and Petrova came back strong to hold her serve.

Petrova kept her cool to break Sania's serve 0-40 in the next game and then went on to hold her serve to lead 4-2 in the second set.

Petrova gained full control over the proceedings as she clinched the following game also by once again breaking Sania' serve to take an unassailable lead of 5-2.

Earlier on Monday, Sania Mirza survived a late onslaught from world number 61 Marta Domachowhska to move into the second-round.

The unseeded Indian got past Domachowhska 6-1, 6-4 in the first round while Nadia beat Kazakhstan Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 7-6 (3) in her opening round match.

The 22-year-old Sania made her return to competitive tennis after a four-month injury lay-off. This was the third meeting between Sania and Petrova. Sania beat her in straight sets on hardcourts in 2005, while she went down to Petrova on grass at Wimbledon
in 2007.