Sania bows out in singles, sails in doubles 2nd rd in Istanbul

Istanbul, May 22 (UNI) Struggling to find form after a long injury lay-off, Sania Mirza crashed out of Istanbul Cup singles competition but sailed into second round in doubles here today.

The 20-year-old Indian ace lost to Meghann Shaughnessy of USA 4-6, 3-6 in singles first round but later partnered Chan Yung Jan of Chinese Taipei to thrash Romanian duo of Sorana Cirstea and Agnes Szatmari 6-3, 6-1 in doubles opening round.

Sania, who lost in the singles opening round of Morocco Open last week in her first tournament after injury, failed to find her rhythm besides having to lose crucial points to the American opponent's half a dozen aces, three each in the two sets, to the Indian's one in the whole match.

After conceding the first set 4-6 to her lower-ranked opponent, Sania lost direction and committed four service double faults to the American's one in the second set to lose it 3-5 and the match in one hour and 21 minutes in the 2,00,000 dollar Tier III event.

But, Sania, who won the doubles title at Morocco pertnering with Vania King of USA, and Chan Yung did not have to toil much to send their Romanian opponents packing in straight sets.

Both the pairs held their serves till the sixth game before the Indo-Taipei pair broke their opponents in the seventh game and then went on to win the next three games to take the first set 6-3.

Sania and Chan began the second set even better, breaking the Romanian duo's first serve and went onto hold their own to move 3-0 up.

The Romanians held their serve in the fourth game but that was to be their only success in the second set as Sania and Chan broke them in the sixth game to make the scoreline 5-1 and then wrapped up the set 6-1 and the match in just over 51 minutes.

In the second round, Sania and Chan will take on German pair of Sandra Kloesel and Anna Koumantou who prevailed over the duo of Menna Stella (Italy) and Kateryna Polunina (Ukraine) 4-6, 6-4, 10-8 in an 83-minute duel.

UNI