Sania-Ivanovic knocked out of doubles quarters at Nasdaq Open

Miami, Mar 31 (UNI) Sania Mirza and her Serbian partner Ana Ivanovic put up a fight in the first set but were blanked out in the second as they went down 5-7, 0-6 to eighth seeded Japanese-Slovenian pair of Shinobu Asagoe and Katarina Srebotnik in the quaterfinals of the Nasdaq-100 Open here.

Sania and Ivanovic tried to face up to their seeded opponents in the first set and they even managed to break them twice but Asagoe and Srebotnik held their own against an onslaught of aces -- six in all -- by the Indo-Serbian pair to take the set 5-7 after a 41-minute long battle.

But the WTA newcomer of the year and her Serbian partner ran out of steam in the second set and failed to win a single point. Asagoe and Srebotnik broke their wild card opponents thrice before storming through the set in 23 minutes.

They will ow take on the seventh seeded pair of South African Liezel Huber and American Martina Navratilova in the semifinal.

The match was the Indian's last at the tournament after she was knocked out in the first round of the singles competition.

Sania, who has dropped to number 41 after finshing the last year at a career high 31st in the WTA rankings, has had an ordinary season so far with no singles title. She has failed to go beyond the third round of a singles competition in any tournment played so far.

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